Preliminary investigations into the crash of a cargo plane at the Chisinau International Airport on April 11 showed that the cause of the fatal accident was “misjudgment of height” or distance, said Prosecutor General Valeriu Gurbulea at a Parliament sitting on Thursday, Info-Prim Neo reports. Approaching the landing area, the aircraft touched some high-voltage power lines and struck a radar, collapsing several hundred meters from the landing strip and bursting into flames, Gurbulea explained. According to the Prosecutor, the aircraft belonged to a British company and was chartered by a Sudanese carrier. The plane arrived in Chisinau on March 31 for tests and maintenance checks. On April 8 the plane performed a test flight. Gurbulea said the test flight revealed a malfunction in a radar transmitter on the plane. It was then decided to perform a touchdown in visual regime, which proved successful. On April 11, without verifying the causes of the detected malfunction, it was decided to take off for Sudan with an en-route stop at Antalya, Turkey. The takeoff was scheduled for 16:00, but because of two tardy crew members, the departure was postponed until 22:10. The crew discovered there was no contact with the radars seven minutes after the takeoff, when the aircraft had reached an altitude of 6,000 meters, and decided to return to the airport. The landing was fatal for all eight occupants of the plane. The General Prosecutor’s Office has initiated criminal proceedings and investigations into the circumstances of the pre-flight tests, the permission for takeoff and pilot behaviors before the crash.