Part 7/8:
The aircraft was soon declared beyond repair, prompting a thorough investigation by the Estonian Safety Investigation Bureau. Dissections of the incident revealed a complex chain of failures that led to the unprecedented loss of control. The initial ELAC warning had signaled the onset of a series of cascading events that would paralyze the crew.
Investigators identified a flawed switch that failed to acknowledge that the manual trim wheel was in use, thereby triggering a series of shutdowns in the control systems. As a result, the aircraft's crucial elevator controls became locked in a neutral position, leaving the crew struggling to regain command amid chaos.