[1] The accident investigation concluded that spatial disorientation in poor weather and pilot fatigue likely caused a low altitude loss of control of the aircraft, leading to the impact with the ground.

[7]: 140  The final report on the accident noted that the pilots' schedule complied with legal duty time and rest requirements, but that "expert examination of voice, speech and language parameters on the day of the accident...indicated...fatigue and somnolence on the part of the copilot in his communications with the ATS units.

The report notes that the captain used a similar approach in previous landings and that "it is possible that the captain’s experience of landing in runways of other countries with precarious infrastructure conditions, in addition to his mistaken assumption of the real meteorological conditions in the aerodrome, may have contributed to his feeling safe upon adopting such procedure.

[7]: 147  On this trajectory, the aircraft made a "tight" turn, with a bank angle up to 60° and g-force up to 2.0 G.[7]: 148  The investigation hypothesized that the pilots were flying manually, therefore leading to a large workload for the pilot-in-command.

The missed approach procedure required a significant amount of work that had to be performed in a short time.

Investigators noted that "[t]he captain’s personal characteristics, indicating a person with a more impositive and confident posture, in opposition to the more passive posture of the copilot, in addition to the more limited knowledge of the equipment on the part of the latter and the possibility that he (the copilot) was fatigued, may also have hindered the dynamics of the crew in the management of the flight.

"[7]: 148  Investigators believe the combination of the meteorological conditions, the effect of the high g-forces on the pilots' sense of spatial perception, and that the pilot-in-command would have been rapidly switching his focus between the instrument panel and exterior caused "incapacitating" spatial disorientation, which led to an "abnormal attitude.

[7]: 149 Of fracture surfaces examined, none showed signs of fatigue but were caused by stress overload at the moment of impact.