Boeing 767 crash over the Atlantic
On October 31, 1999, an Egyptian Airlines Boeing 767-366, flying from New York to Cairo, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. 202 passengers and 15 crew members were killed.
On October 31, 1999, off the coast of Massachusetts, 100 km from the island of Nantucket, an Egyptian Air Boeing 767-366 crashed. Of the 202 passengers, including citizens of Egypt, the USA, Sudan, Syria, Chile, Canada and 15 crew members, none managed to escape. There were about thirty Egyptian military personnel on board the Boeing, including high military ranks: they were returning to their homeland after training in the United States.
The crash occurred half an hour into flight MS990 from New York to Cairo: the plane, which took off at 01:19 EST, disappeared from radar at 1:52. No alarm or distress signals were received from the board, although dispatchers noticed that at 1.50, three minutes after the next contact was made, the airliner sharply went down.
The fatal fall from a height of 9900 m into the ocean took no more than two minutes. At the same time, based on the readings of the on-board instruments, all electrical systems, at least in the nose of the aircraft, were working properly.
At 2:15 a.m., the US Coast Guard received a report of the missing aircraft; A search and rescue operation was immediately launched. Egypt sent its specialists to help. The area of the crash was determined quite quickly (area - 54-60 sq. km, depth - from 80 to 100 m) - 100 km southeast of Nantucket. On the first day, belts and vests, passenger seat cushions, and small personal items were found; Only one body was raised to the surface.
At a morning press conference on Monday, October 22, representatives of the National Transportation Safety Bureau said that establishing the causes of the sudden crash is a process that takes several months, and so far we can only talk about versions. There are no specific signs on everything found that any explosion leaves behind, so there is no reason yet to believe that the disaster is the result of a terrorist attack.
On the radar screens, the last moments of flight No. 990 looked like this. A little more than half an hour after taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport heading for Cairo, the plane, which had managed to gain an altitude of 9900 m, suddenly plummeted down. In just half a minute, the liner “failed” almost 7 km, the falling speed approached the 1000 km/h mark.
According to experts, the people on board managed to experience a real feeling of weightlessness before the fall. Those who did not fasten their seat belts were smeared across the ceiling. However, approximately 2.5 km from the surface of the ocean, the liner slowed down its fall and even went up, but not for long. As if taking off on the crest of a giant slide, the Boeing again, now irrevocably, crashed into the waters of the ocean.
Analysis of the readings from three different radars allowed specialists investigating the circumstances of the plane crash to draw an unambiguous conclusion: the Boeing 767 remained undamaged until it touched the surface of the ocean. The liner crashed into the water at a speed of more than 1000 km/h, which is why the force of the impact was so great, smashing the huge liner and passengers into small pieces.
The causes of the disaster remained a mystery for a long time. “A plane can’t just dive into the sea from a great height without giving any signals if everything is in order with the crew,” noted one of the employees Federal Administration Aviation (FAA) USA.
From the very beginning, the investigation worked out several versions of the disaster: a technical malfunction, sudden depressurization, a bomb explosion, an attack on the crew. The head of the National Transportation Safety Board, James Hall, said there were no signs of mechanical failure on the plane that could have caused such a disaster. The weather conditions were also satisfactory.
The crashed Boeing 767-366ER was built in 1989. Considering the version of the technical problem, experts recalled a Boeing that crashed eight years ago in Thailand, whose engine reverse braking system suddenly turned on. Research carried out after that incident showed that the strongest vortex flows that arise when this system is turned on in the air are capable of destroying the wings of an airplane in seconds. It was possible that the same fate befell the Egyptian airliner.
The FBI continued to investigate the possibility of a terrorist attack. A representative of this department, shortly after the Boeing crash, said that he “does not yet have any information or indications of criminal activity.” It later became known that until October 30, a special security regime was in effect at the airports of Los Angeles and New York due to an anonymous call received in August about the intention of a certain organization to carry out a terrorist attack on board an aircraft at one of these airports.
Finally, a sensational rumor appeared: the culprit of the disaster, perhaps one of the Boeing crew members, who allegedly shortly before the tragic flight insured his life for a colossal amount - several million dollars.
As three government officials close to the investigation previously told the AP news agency, who asked not to be named, an examination of the wreckage of the crashed plane did not reveal any signs of mechanical problems that could lead to a disaster.
According to one of them, before the fall the car behaved absolutely as it should. And according to two other representatives, the working hypothesis remains that the plane was sent into a dive shortly after takeoff.
Several additional studies need to be completed before the cause of the death of the Egyptian Boeing 767 is determined, James Hall said. Thus, he cast doubt on the AP's report, according to which experts are increasingly convinced that the plane crash was caused deliberately.
For his part, Hall said that the National Transportation Safety Bureau, along with representatives of the Egyptian Ministry of Transport, Communications and Civil Aviation, agreed to continue the investigation of the crash, including the study of recordings of conversations in the cockpit and readings from various instruments. Investigators must analyze the operation of the elevator mechanism, elements hydraulic system and engine pylons. They also plan to conduct simulations of the crashed plane's final flight at Boeing's research facility in Seattle.
“Black boxes” help solve the mystery of the disaster. The location of one of them, giving signals from under the water, was determined quite accurately. But strong winds and high waves prevented getting to it for a long time.
Studying the recording of the “black boxes” shocked experts: the plane and everyone on it, apparently, was deliberately killed by co-pilot Gamil el-Batouti, who decided to take his own life.
...This turned out to be one of the last flights of the 59-year-old Egyptian airline veteran; he was due to retire in March. For twelve years, el-Batouti was engaged in air transport, and in last years flew on the prestigious Cairo - New York - Los Angeles flight. According to his colleagues, Gamil was very worried that he never received the position of crew commander. True, everyone respected the former Egyptian Air Force instructor pilot, who once served with the country's President Hosni Mubarak, and listened to the advice of an experienced colleague.
A transcript of the tape recording the crew's conversations showed that almost immediately after takeoff, el-Batouti actually forced his young partner, 36-year-old Abdel Anwar, to give him his seat at the helm, although according to the plan he was to fly the plane only a few hours later. The Boeing commander did not object, and after some time he left the cockpit completely, leaving Gamil alone. And then something incomprehensible began to happen.
Microphones recorded how el-Batouti said a traditional Muslim prayer in Arabic: “I surrender myself to the mercy of Allah” (“Allah Akbar”). He repeated it 13 (!) times. Some linguist experts who have studied the recording claim that the other two words spoken by the pilot can be heard behind the noise of the engines: “I have made up my mind.” In any case, a moment after the prayer, the plane’s autopilot was already turned off, and a second later the plane rushed down. An audible alarm for loss of altitude and exceeding the speed limit sounded on the instrument panel. The commander burst into the cockpit and rushed to save the diving vehicle. “Help me! Pull yourself!” - the film from the “black box” reproduced his desperate appeal to el-Batouti. The commander turned off the engines to slow the rate of fall. About a kilometer from the surface of the water, the plane leveled out and began to gain altitude again, but the power of the turbines was not enough, and the Boeing crashed into the Atlantic.
So it's still suicide? But the sounds of a struggle or altercation between el-Batouti and the commander are not heard on the tape. And most importantly, what motives could force the co-pilot to commit suicide, and in such a terrible way?
A special team of investigators was sent to Egypt, which had to carefully study the biographies of the crew members, and first of all el-Batouti.
It turned out that el-Batouti received a very decent salary - $6,000 a month. By retirement, he managed to accumulate a fortune - three country houses, a luxury car, a solid bank account, which allowed him to support his wife and five children without much stress. True, trouble happened to Gamil’s youngest daughter, nine-year-old Aya. Since childhood, she was tormented by an incomprehensible, serious illness. Egyptian doctors rendered a verdict - skin cancer - and carried out painful chemotherapy treatment.
Her father decided to continue her treatment in the USA. It turned out that Aya has a rare disease immune system. New medications and medical care required a lot of money, but El-Batouti had the necessary amount and was not slow to pay for the treatment. So the version about the financial collapse of the head of the family was not confirmed.
El-Batouti did not look like an extremist either - a devout Muslim, but not a fanatic. And the prayer he said a moment before the disaster is a traditional saying, akin to our “Lord, have mercy.” The pilot's relatives categorically rejected the version that he committed suicide, especially in this way.
Apparently, the mysterious circumstances of the death of the Egyptian Boeing will force us to henceforth equip airplane cockpits with video cameras. Experts believe that only a “living picture” of what is happening can tell with 100% accuracy the causes of an aircraft crash.
The Egyptian authorities reacted negatively to the haste with which the United States tried to portray Gamil el-Batouti as the culprit of the tragedy. In Cairo they said that the Americans were trying to get the Boeing corporation out of the attack (in case a technical malfunction did lead to the disaster). True, the Egyptians had their own reasons not to admit guilt for what happened. The family of one of the 217 people killed in the disaster immediately filed a lawsuit against Egypt Air for $50 million. If the relatives of other passengers follow this example, Egypt Air cannot avoid colossal losses...
Cairo and Washington held secret consultations for a long time: the Egyptians tried to keep the circumstances of the disaster secret, not wanting to be “blacklisted” by travel agencies. The Bill Clinton administration decided to meet Cairo halfway, but reporters unearthed all the details of what happened. So the world learned about the tragedy over the Atlantic, and in every detail.
The case with the Egyptian Boeing is by no means the only time when pilots deliberately led their plane to death. This happened especially often during the Second World War, but these were combat vehicles.
As for civil aviation, two such incidents are the most famous.
In August 1994, a Moroccan plane flying to Casablanca crashed. The investigation showed that the pilot committed a deliberate suicide. In 1997, Boeing of the Singaporean company became a victim of its pilot, who decided in a similar way to get rid of the need to pay gambling debts.
Another interesting observation. Over the previous three years, four plane crashes occurred in the air region over the Atlantic near the east coast of the United States. In July 1996, a TWA plane en route from Paris to New York exploded and crashed into the ocean near Long Island. In 1998, to the north, not far from the coast of Nova Scotia, a Swiss Air airliner crashed. In the summer of 1999, the plane of President Kennedy's son, John Jr., crashed off the island of Martha's Vineyard, adjacent to Nantucket. And then there was flight number 990.
Some American scientists believe that all these planes could have become victims of a natural anomaly such as the Bermuda Triangle, which had not been noticed before. It is also assumed that the classic “triangle”, which has not manifested itself in any way in recent years, for some reason “moved” from Bermuda to the north.
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French passenger airliner airlines Air France flight AF 447, carrying 216 passengers, took off from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on Sunday evening at 19.00 local time (02.00 Moscow time). Eleven hours later it was supposed to land in the French capital, but instead it disappeared from radar screens and disappeared over the expanses of the Atlantic Ocean, writes RIA News.
The Brazilian Air Force immediately began searching for the plane, but so far their efforts have yielded no results. According to experts, search operations can take from several hours to two weeks, and among the preliminary reasons that caused the disappearance of the airliner, they name strong turbulence, which led to malfunctions in the instruments. Meanwhile, the French side does not exclude the worst-case scenario for the development of the situation and the fact that a possible disaster will become the largest in the history of the airline.
The A-330 began operation in 2005 and has flown about 19 thousand hours, with an experienced pilot at the helm, and on board 216 passengers - 126 men, 82 women and eight children, as well as 12 crew members.
Flight AF 447 last made radio contact 565 kilometers off the coast of Brazil, at the entrance to airspace controlled by Senegal. At the time of leaving the coverage area of Brazilian radars on the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, at 22.48 (05.48 Moscow time), the flight parameters corresponded to the norm: the plane was at an altitude of 35 thousand feet (11 kilometers) and moving at a speed of 840 kilometers per hour. After some time, he found himself in a thunderstorm zone with severe turbulence, and then sent an automatic signal about an emergency in the electrical system.
Air France reported that 100 kilometers before entering the Dakar (Senegal) air traffic control zone, flight AF 447 encountered technical problems - "loss of cabin pressure and electrical failure."
In search of the missing Airbus, Brazilian Air Force planes almost immediately took off from the island of Fernando de Noronha, located in the Atlantic 350 kilometers from the northeastern coast of Brazil, and they were joined by a military plane that took off from the French base in Dakar (Senegal).
Due to scattered information about the alleged crash site of the airliner, the search area is very wide: from the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, 270 kilometers northeast of the coast of Brazil, to the islands of Cape Verde, 500 kilometers west of the coast of Senegal.
Meanwhile, relatives of the passengers of the plane that disappeared over the Atlantic are gathering in international airports Rio de Janeiro named after Tom Jobim and the anti-crisis headquarters deployed at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. French President Nicolas Sarkozy not only sent two ministers to the Paris airport, but he himself will personally arrive at his headquarters on Monday.
According to Air France, there were 61 French, 58 Brazilians and 26 Germans on the plane. As noted in the Air France communique, Air France flight AF 447 also flew nine Italians, nine Chinese, six Swiss, five British, five Lebanese, four Hungarians, three each Irish, Norwegian and Slovak, two citizens of the USA, Spain, Morocco and Poland and one citizen each from South Africa, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Gambia, Iceland, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Romania, Sweden and Turkey.
A representative of the Russian embassy in Paris told RIA Novosti that a passenger named Andrei Kiselev, who is most likely a Russian citizen, is on board the missing airliner over the Atlantic.
The governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sergio Cabral, declared three days of mourning in the state.
The French Navy ship did not find the wreckage of the missing ship the day before Airbus aircraft An A330-200 in the area indicated by the Brazilian pilots, a Brazilian Air Force source told reporters on Tuesday.
According to him, the search vessel found no traces of the plane crash in the territorial waters of Senegal, where, according to the pilots of the Brazilian airline TAM flight, shortly after losing contact with flight AF 447, flashes of orange color were noticed on the surface of the ocean.
The search and rescue operation in the Atlantic Ocean involves five aircraft and two helicopters from the Brazilian Air Force. A frigate, a corvette and a patrol ship from the country's navy entered the search area 597 nautical miles (1,100 km) northeast of the coast of Brazil. They are expected to arrive at their target location on Wednesday morning. The governments of France and the United States promised assistance to the Brazilian authorities in conducting the search operation.
A330 crash in Atlantic- a major aviation accident that occurred on June 1, 2009. The Airbus A330-203 airliner of Air France operated flight AF447 on the route Rio de Janeiro - Paris, but 3 hours and 45 minutes after takeoff it crashed into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and was completely destroyed. All 228 people on board were killed - 12 crew members and 216 passengers.
This biggest disaster in the history of Air France and the largest passenger plane crash since 2001 until the Boeing 777 crash in the Donetsk region (July 17, 2014, 298 dead).
The final report of the investigation into the causes of the disaster was released at a press conference on July 5, 2012.
As the causes of the disaster, it indicates freezing of the pitot tubes, the subsequent shutdown of the autopilot and uncoordinated actions of the crew, which led to a stall from which the crew was unable to recover the plane.
Flight 447 Details
Airplane
Airbus A330-203 (registration number F-GZCP, serial 660) was released in 2005 (first flight on February 25). On April 18 of the same year it was transferred to Air France. Equipped with two General Electric CF6-80-E1A3 turbofan engines. On December 27, 2008, February 21, 2009, and April 16, 2009, the aircraft underwent scheduled repairs, and no problems were found. On the day of the disaster, the airliner had completed 2,644 takeoff-landing cycles and had flown over 18,870 hours.
Crew and passengers
The aircraft was flown by a crew consisting of:
According to Air France, there were citizens of 33 countries on board the airliner. The crew included 3 pilots, 3 chief stewards and 6 stewards and stewardesses. All crew members are French, except for one Brazilian stewardess.
Among the 216 passengers were 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and one infant.
The plane was almost completely filled - 3 passenger seats out of 219 remained free.
| Nationality of people on board | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Citizenship | Passengers | Crew | Total |
| France | 61 | 11 | 72 |
| Brazil | 58 | 1 | 59 |
| Germany | 26 | 0 | 26 |
| Italy | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| China | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| Switzerland | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Great Britain | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| Hungary | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Ireland | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Libya | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Morocco | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Norway | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Slovakia | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Spain | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Poland | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| USA | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Austria | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Argentina | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Belgium | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Gabon | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Iceland | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Canada | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| The Republic of Korea | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Russia | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Romania | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Türkiye | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Philippines | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Croatia | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Sweden | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Estonia | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| South Africa | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 216 | 12 | 228 |
Among the passengers were a number of famous people:
On board flight 447 was a Russian businessman, resident of the Moscow region, Andrei Kiselyov.
In total, there were 228 people on board the plane - 12 crew members and 216 passengers.
Chronology of events
Airplane disappearance
Flight AF447 took off from Rio de Janeiro to Paris at 23:29. After 2.5 hours, the pilots reported turbulence, then the aircraft’s on-board computer transmitted several service messages, after which contact with the aircraft was lost.
On the afternoon of June 1, Air France representatives said that there was practically no chance of finding the plane intact, and by the end of the day it was announced that the plane had crashed.
Another 14 bodies were found during the day, bringing the total to 16. Air France says it is replacing pitot tubes on all Airbus planes on the assumption that defective older-type sensors may have caused the crash.
June 8
A Brazilian search team retrieves part of a vertical tail fin painted in Air France colors from the ocean. The Brazilian Navy reports that about a hundred objects were found in the crash area, including seats and oxygen masks with the Air France logo.
the 9th of June
Brazilian officials say a total of 41 bodies have been found. The first 16 bodies found over the weekend will arrive at the rescue base in Fernando de Noronha, located off the coast of Brazil. The remaining 25 will be delivered later.
June 10th
The French nuclear submarine Emeraude, equipped with high-precision sonar, reaches the disaster site to begin searching for the black boxes.
Search operation
year 2009
The search operation was launched several hours after contact with flight AF447 was lost. Bad weather at the supposed site of the disaster greatly hampered the search.
2011
Investigation
Before the discovery and decoding of flight recorders, the only data on the condition of the aircraft before the disaster were automatic messages transmitted by the airliner. There was no objective control data, since the airliner was outside the radar coverage area at the time of the disaster.
The first results of the investigation into the crash of flight AF447 indicated that the airliner did not collapse in the air, as previously thought, but after hitting the water. This preliminary conclusion was made by experts from the French Bureau of Investigation and Analysis of Civil Aviation Safety (BEA), which published a report on July 2, 2009. According to him, the plane fell into the water " with significant vertical acceleration».
On March 17, 2011, French authorities announced that they were launching an investigation into the European aviation concern Airbus on suspicion of manslaughter.
On May 16, 2011, it was reported that BEA had succeeded in copying all data from the parametric recorder. BEA officials, who were investigating the cause of the crash, also managed to obtain recordings of the last two hours of the flight from the voice recorder. All collected data was sent to the BEA for thorough analysis.
Flight recorder data
The report provides flight data recorded by parametric and voice recorders. At 01:55 the crew commander woke up the co-pilot and said: […] he will take my place. After the briefing, at 02:01:46, the commander left the cockpit and went to rest. The co-pilot sat in the commander's seat, the trainee co-pilot sat in the right seat. At 02:06, the co-pilot warned the flight attendant team that the plane was entering an area of turbulence. After 4 minutes, the pilots performed a slight left turn and reduced speed from 872 km/h to 400 km/h due to increasing turbulence.
At 02:10:05 the autopilot and autothrottle switched off. The co-pilot pushed the stick to the left and down, countering the right roll. The stall warning sounded twice. After 10 seconds, the plane's speed dropped sharply from 398 to 111 km/h. The angle of attack of the aircraft increased and the altitude began to rise. The left side of the instrument panel displayed a sharp increase in the indicated speed - up to 398 km/h. The integrated backup instrumentation system did not display this change for a minute (the readings on the right side of the instrument panel are not recorded by the parametric recorder). The trainee co-pilot continued to keep the nose of the aircraft up. The angle of the horizontal tail stabilizer increased from 3° to 13° within one minute and remained in this position until the end of the flight.
At approximately 02:11, the plane reached its maximum flight altitude of 11,600 meters. In this case, the angle of attack reached 16°, the engine control levers (EC) were moved to the “ Takeoff/Go-Around"(maximum thrust). At 02:11:40 the PIC returned to the cockpit. The angle of attack increased to 40°, the aircraft descended to an altitude of 10,675 meters with almost 100% engine thrust (the revolutions of the front engine fan, which creates most of the thrust in turbofan engines, are recorded). The stall warning is disabled because the indicated airspeed is considered unreliable at this angle of attack. Approximately 20 seconds later, the co-pilot reduced the pitch angle slightly, the indicated airspeed became valid, and the stall alarm sounded again. From this moment until the end of the flight, the pitch angle was not less than 35°. IN last minutes During flight, the throttles were in the “low throttle” position (minimum thrust). The engines continued to operate and remained completely under the control of the crew.
The recording of both recorders ends at 02:14:28 or 3 hours 45 minutes after takeoff. At this moment, the aircraft speed was 198 km/h with a vertical speed of about 3345 m/min, the engine thrust was 55% of the maximum. The pitch angle was 16.2° (nose up), with a left bank of 5.3°. During the descent, the plane turned almost 180° to the right on a course of 270°. The airliner was in a stall for 3 minutes 30 seconds, falling from a height of 11,600 meters.
Incorrect airspeed readings are an obvious cause of autopilot disengagement, but why pilots lose control of the airplane remains a mystery, especially since the pilot typically tries to lower the nose of the airplane to prevent a stall. Multiple sensors show the pitch angle and there is no sign of any malfunction.
BEA Third Interim Report
The third report stated that some new facts had been established, in particular:
BEA organized a team of aviation specialists and doctors to analyze the pilots' response to the current situation.
Air France published a bulletin in which it stated that " misleading stall warning signals on and off, contradicting the actual attitude of the aircraft, could be factors that significantly complicate the crew's analysis of the situation» .
BEA Investigation Final Report
It confirmed the findings of previous reports, noted additional details and added recommendations to improve aviation security. According to the conclusions of the final report, the disaster occurred as a result of the following main events:
- Temporary desynchronization of speed readings, most likely as a result of pitot tubes being clogged with ice crystals, which led to the autopilot being turned off and switching to an alternative piloting law (English).
- The crew made inappropriate control actions, which led to the departure from stable flight.
- The crew did not take the actions prescribed in the event of loss of current speed readings.
- The crew was late in determining and correcting the deviation from the specified flight mode.
- The crew did not have sufficient skills to determine when a stall was approaching.
- The crew was unable to determine the beginning of the stall and therefore did not take action to recover the aircraft from the stall.
These events were the result of a combination of the following main factors:
- Feedback mechanisms in the controls involved made it impossible to identify and correct repeated failures to follow procedures for loss of current speed readings and pitot tube icing and its consequences.
- The crew did not have practical skills in manually controlling the aircraft either at high flight altitudes or in the event of a discrepancy in the current speed readings.
- The joint performance of the duties of the two pilots was complicated both by a lack of understanding of the situation at the time the autopilot was turned off, and by an inappropriate reaction to the effect of surprise, which led them to a state of emotional stress.
- There was no clear indication in the cockpit of the discrepancy in the current speed readings recorded by the on-board computers.
- The crew did not respond to the stall warning due to the short duration of the stall warning, which may have appeared to be a false alarm; with a lack of visual information confirming that the aircraft is approaching a stall after losing speed; with readings from the main computer, which could confirm the crew’s erroneous understanding of the situation; not recognizing the sound signal; mistaking buffeting during stalling for buffeting associated with exceeding maximum speed; or having difficulty identifying and understanding the features of the transition to an alternative aircraft control law that does not provide protection in the angle of attack channel.
- Inconsistency of actions and poor training of the crew (co-pilots David Robert and Pierre-Cedric Bonin, who were in the cockpit). For three minutes, while the emergency situation was developing, the pilots could not come to a common opinion about the spatial position and direction of movement of the aircraft.
- Panic in the cockpit. More than a minute before the commander arrived, the two pilots took chaotic and uncoordinated actions, which transferred the situation from an emergency to an emergency. The required report to the commander about the situation in the cockpit was not made.
- The trainee co-pilot Pierre-Cedric Bonin, who was in the right seat, committed a gross violation of the crew resource management procedure (). At the first sign of a malfunction, he panicked and pulled the control stick towards himself, without informing either co-pilot David Robert, who occupied the PIC seat, or commander Mark Dubois, who arrived a minute later. He reported his actions only a few seconds before the plane crashed into the water. The crew commander immediately made the right decision and ordered to stop attempting to climb; the co-pilot demanded that control be transferred to him. At an altitude of about 600 meters, the plane began to pick up speed, but it was not possible to stop the stall in time.
According to the publication, the plane remained operational and under control the entire time before the collision with water. The authors of the article placed all the blame for the disaster on the inexperienced trainee co-pilot Pierre-Cedric Bonin.
Chesley Sullenberger, chairman of the International Civil Airline Pilots Association, believes that in this case there is a systemic flaw in the design of modern aircraft and the crew training system. In his opinion, modern computer systems control the aircraft 99% of the time, which deprives pilots of direct piloting experience and reduces their preparedness for emergency situations.
In addition, several documentaries and programs were aired that put forward various alternative versions of the disaster, but all of them lost relevance after the discovery of the flight recorders.
The Air France pilots' union said pitot tubes played a decisive role in the crash. Union President Gérer Arnoux confirmed that the disaster could have been avoided if only they had been replaced in time.
Cultural aspects
Air France Flight 447 crash featured in season 12 of Canadian documentary series
October 04, 2011 No comments
Today, Air France is recognized as one of the most profitable international companies. True, 2011 was not the most successful year for her. Recently, it was for this reason that the airline changed its management, in the hope that, against the backdrop of the international financial crisis, the new management would be able to raise the company's prestige to maximum heights.
The fact that at the moment Air France is not in the most successful situation is also to blame for the Air France plane crashes that happened in Lately with company aircraft. Suffice it to recall the sensational crash over the Atlantic Ocean of the flight Rio de Janeiro - Paris in June 2009, in which 228 people died at once. The reasons for the plane crash were made public only in 2011.
Despite the disasters of Air France, in the fall of 2012 in Geneva the company entered the international ranking of the safest airlines in the world. According to the compilers of the list, in this situation, carriers were assessed by a large number parameters. Among the determining factors were the uniformity of the fleet and the age of the aircraft used during flights. In total, the list includes 15 technical criteria, showing the technical level that ensures the company’s activities and how confident its aircraft feel in the sky.
True, not all analysts agree with the list compiled. Since, from the point of view of many experts, only on the basis technical characteristics How well a company operates and how safe it is cannot be considered. The level of pilots working in the company plays too large a role in the activities of any operator. The so-called human factor plays too big a role in flights. The activities of European airlines in the proposed list were not assessed based on these parameters.
On April 20, 1998, Air France flight AF422 flew from Bogota to Quito. There were 10 crew members and 43 passengers on board. It was raining in Bogota, the sky was covered with cumulus clouds 700 meters high, and a moderate westerly wind was blowing. The Boeing took off from Runway 13L and began to exit the airport airside according to GIR 1, according to which it was supposed to turn 90° towards the Romeo radio beacon.
However, at the required point the crew did not turn and continued to fly in a straight line to the east until, 10 kilometers from the airport, it crashed into the 3.1-kilometer-high mountain Cerro el Cable. On impact, the plane was completely destroyed, killing all 53 people on board.
The cause of the disaster was the disorientation of the crew, as a result of which they could not withstand the exit pattern of GIR 1, continuing to maintain the flight direction until they collided with the mountains.
On July 25, 2000, the supersonic passenger airliner Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde 101 of Air France operated chartered flight AFR 4590 on the route Paris-New York, but during acceleration on the runway the left engine of the plane caught fire. The crew lifted the burning plane into the air to then make an emergency landing, but 2 minutes after takeoff the plane crashed onto a hotel building in the Paris municipality of Gonesse, 4 kilometers southwest of Paris airport. All 109 people on board (100 passengers and 9 crew members), as well as 4 people on the ground, were killed.
This was the first and only Concorde disaster in 27 years of operation.
On August 2, 2005, an Air France Airbus A340-313X was operating scheduled flight AFR358 on the Paris-Toronto route, with 12 crew members and 297 passengers on board. The approach was carried out in difficult weather conditions with large thunderstorms over the airport in heavy rain and lightning flashes on the runway. The landing was carried out manually with the autopilot and autothrottle disabled, and as a result the plane ended up above the glide path.
Having flown over the end of the runway significantly higher than set, the airliner landed more than a third from the beginning of the runway length. The pilots applied reverse, but were unable to stop within the runway, as a result of which the plane left the runway and rolled into a ravine. A fire broke out, which in a few minutes engulfed the airliner and destroyed it, but all 309 people on board were evacuated in time.
The horrific plane crash occurred on June 1, 2009, over the Atlantic when Air France Flight 447 Rio-Paris experienced air turbulence, according to pilot reports, and then experienced multiple electrical system failures and depressurization, according to a computer message. salon.
Ocean Search for Air France Aircraft Continues
June 2, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5501PB20090602?sp=true Four hours after taking off from Rio de Janeiro airport, the Air France plane flew into an area of stormy weather and 15 minutes later transmitted an automatic message indicating an electrical failure. The culprit could have been lightning striking and causing the failure of some mechanisms on the Airbus 330-200, which has a good track record of reliable operation. But aviation experts said a lightning strike on a plane is a common event and cannot alone explain the cause of the disaster. They also said the plane may have suffered an electrical failure, effectively leaving the pilots "blind" and rendering the plane helpless in an area notorious for its bad weather.The plane's black box is unlikely to be found because the Atlantic is three miles deep below the crash site. When speculating about the cause of the disaster, experts take into account the following key points: airliners do not crash due to lightning strikes alone; electrical systems are designed to be redundant to prevent complete failure; storms do not cause electrical failures; fuel films found at the crash site indicate that there was no explosion, such as a bomb, and no terrorist group has claimed responsibility; and depressurization of the cabin may indicate that the plane has broken up into pieces.
What Happened to Flight 447?
June 1, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5505BF20090602?virtualBrandChannel=10531&pageNumber=2 Four hours into the flight, the plane encountered an area of severe turbulence. Fifteen minutes later, now over the ocean and a long distance from shore, an automatic signal was transmitted indicating that the aircraft was in serious trouble. A sequence of a dozen technical messages showed that a completely unprecedented situation had occurred on the aircraft - several electrical equipment systems had failed, and the failure of the pressurization system posed the greatest threat. It has been four decades since lightning alone caused a plane crash in the United States. Much time and effort is spent protecting aircraft from clear and present dangers. And lightning strikes airliners all the time - you don't hear about it because nothing bad happens. Remember, one thing rarely causes a modern airliner to crash. Experts: Jetliner Crashes Due to Storms Are Rare
June 1, 2009
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-liplan0212831280jun01,0,5886616.story Early Monday morning, 14 minutes after Air France Flight 447 "entered a thunderstorm area with severe turbulence," the plane sent an automated message indicating an electrical failure and cabin depressurization, said company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand. The Terrifying Last 14 Minutes of the Plane
June 3, 2009
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06042009/news/worldnews/jets_horrifying_final_14_minutes_172538.htm At 11:10 p.m., a cascade of horrific problems began. Automatic messages transmitted by the jetliner indicated that the autopilot had disconnected, suggesting that Dubois and his two co-pilots were trying to navigate through dangerous clouds manually. The main computer system switched to an alternate power source, and the controls responsible for maintaining the plane's stability were damaged. An alarm sounded indicating a malfunction of the aircraft's systems. At 11:13 p.m., other automated messages reported failure of the airspeed, altitude, and direction control systems. Control of the main on-board computer and wing spoilers also failed. The last automatic message, at 11:14 p.m., indicated a complete electrical failure and severe cabin depressurization - catastrophic events indicating that the aircraft had broken up and crashed into the ocean. New Air France Flight Debris Found, Hardly an Explosion
June 3, 2009
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090603/wl_nm/us_france_plane Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said the presence of large patches of fuel in the water would likely rule out an explosion, quashing speculation about an explosion. The plane sent no distress signals before the accident, only automatic messages indicating electrical failures and depressurization shortly after it entered the stormy weather zone. If the data indicating decompression was correct, then it was caused by problems with structural strength. Aviation industry publications are paying particular attention to a series of warnings, including recent months issued by American and European regulators regarding electronic systems on A330s and A340s, which could throw the planes into a sharp dive. The directives covered ADIRUs - Airborne Inertial Reference Units - which relay critical information to the cockpit to help the aircraft fly.Per the Zetas, the Air France plane failed to withstand the electromagnetic flux, which caused the electrical systems that control the plane to fail.
