PILOTS OF the Air France aircraft that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009, killing 228 people, were not trained to manually handle the jet when it stalled at high altitude, investigators have found.
In a new report on the worst disaster in Air France’s history, the French air accident investigation bureau found that the pilots did not make any reference to repeated stall alarms and did not follow textbook procedures as flight 447 plummeted 38,000ft before hitting the ocean at 200km/h.
“The situation was salvageable,” Jean-Paul Troadec, the bureau’s director, said yesterday.
The report stopped short of pinning blame on either the crew or the aircraft and its systems. But the account will reinforce the view of industry critics that pilots’ manual flying skills have waned with the automation of cockpit controls, leaving crews insufficiently equipped when flight-control computers malfunction or disconnect.
The bureau recommended mandatory exercises for pilots on ways of handling aircraft manually and preventing high-altitude stalls. It noted that the Airbus 330’s co-pilots had not been trained on a procedure known as “Unreliable IAS [indicated airspeed]” or on manual flying at high altitudes.
The updated findings, based on flight and data recorders found on the Atlantic seabed after a two-year search, show that when air speed sensors gave inconsistent readings – possibly because they had frozen in icy weather – the autopilot switched itself off and the crew took control. The stall alarms sounded at intervals, signalling the aerodynamics were not generating enough lift, and the crew responded by pointing the nose up.
The textbook procedure is to aim it downwards to capture air at a better angle.
Shortly before the emergency began, the captain had started a routine rest period but had left without giving clear operational instructions, the bureau said. He later rejoined the two co-pilots in the cockpit.
Three young Irish doctors were among the 228 people killed when flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed on June 1st, 2009. The report revealed passengers were not given any warning as pilots struggled to avert the disaster.
Air France strongly defended its pilots, saying there were multiple probable factors behind the crash. “At this stage, there is no reason to question the crew’s technical skills,” the carrier said, adding that the “misleading stopping and starting of the stall warning alarm” made it more difficult for the crew to analyse the situation.
The report is likely to set off a battle between Air France and Airbus over whether blame lay mostly with faulty flight equipment or the pilots’ actions in failing to respond to a stall. Both firms could face criminal inquiries in France.