The crew's subsequent response resulted in spatial disorientation, leading to the loss of control of the aircraft.

The accident site was located at an elevation of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) in a remote area near Lake Akkajaure, approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi; 5.4 nmi) from the Norwegian border.

[12][13] On 12 January, SHK reported that the distress call from the pilots contained the word "Mayday" repeated, with no further information.

On 26 January, Statens Haverikommission reported that they had managed to read both CVR and FDR, and were analysing and validating the recordings.

[10] On 19 March, in their interim report, SHK revealed: After 17 seconds from the start of the event, the maximum speed (VMO) of 315 knots (583 km/h; 362 mph) was exceeded.

The indicated airspeed then exceeded 400 knots (740 km/h; 460 mph) and the stabiliser trim was reactivated and reduced to 0.3 degrees nose down.

[14] Investigators discovered that, the inertial reference unit (IRU; which provides information to the flight crew's instruments) no.

1 (connected to the captain's instruments and the flight data recorder) had malfunctioned in-flight (the SHK was unable to determine the cause of the malfunction), causing the captain's artificial horizon to display a nose-up pitch, when in fact the aircraft was perfectly level.

[3] The inquiry reached the following conclusion: The accident was caused by insufficient operational prerequisites for the management of a failure in a redundant system.