Russia blames pilots for plane crash, probe reveals heating unit wasn't on

The pilots of the Russian airliner, which crashed on February 11, have been blamed for the accident.

According to the investigators, the pilots failed to switch on a heating unit, which led the speed sensors to ice up and provide wrong information.

"A factor in the development of a special situation in the flight could be the wrong data about flight speed on pilots' indicators which was likely due to iced pitot tubes (speed probes) while their heating systems were shut off," The New York Post quoted the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee as saying.

"A special situation began to develop about two minutes and 30 seconds after the takeoff at an altitude of around 1,300 meters and the indicator speed of 465-470 km/h," the committee added.