The final report for LAM Linhas Aereas de Mocambique flight TM-470 was released by Namibia's Directorate of Aircraft Accident Investigations (DAAI) on April 15th 2016. The aircraft was en-route from Maputo (Mozambique) to Lunana (Angola) on the 29th November 2013 and descending though 6,000 feet, when both radar and radio contact was lost. The wreckage was later discovered in Namibia’s Bwabwata National Park. All occupants had perished in the accident.
Data taken from both the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was analysed by the DAAI. The investigation determined that one of the pilots, believed to be the captain, had been left alone in the cockpit and had made a number of deliberate flight control inputs, which caused the aircraft to depart from it assigned cruise altitude, enter a controlled descent, and subsequently impact terrain. The data extracted from the CVR revealed that the co-pilot had left the cockpit to use the toilet approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes into the fight, leaving the captain as the sole crew member occupying the cockpit. The co-pilot was subsequently unable to regain access to the cockpit.
As a part of standard investigation procedures, a detailed investigation into the captain’s private life was conducted. It was found that in the year leading up to the occurrence, the captain had been affected by a number of highly stressful experiences, including the death of his son and his daughter undergoing open heart surgery. As a result of the findings, the DAAI proposed a number of safety recommendations, which included the possible implementation of cockpit cameras to allow surveillance of the pilots.