PARIS, (Reuters) – Pilots of a doomed Air France jet which crashed into the Atlantic two years ago killing all 228 people onboard ignored stall warnings and appeared to defy the manual, a new crash investigation report showed yesterday.
The inquiry by France’s BEA air accident investigator into the final minutes of flight AF447 found pilots lacked training to handle the freezing of speed sensors and failed to discuss stall alarms as the Airbus jet plummeted 38,000 feet, slamming into the ocean at 200 km (125 miles) per hour.
The BEA issued 10 safety recommendations aimed at avoiding a repeat of the crash, in particular better training for pilots to fly aircraft manually — a skill industry critics say has been eroded by computerised flight.
Though investigators stopped short of explicitly blaming either the crew or the aircraft and its systems, their report confirmed a finding in May that the pilots responded to stall warnings by doing something that has mystified aviation experts ever since — pointing the nose up instead of down.
An aerodynamic stall — not to be confused with stalled engines — occurs when an aircraft’s wings are unable to support it and the textbook way of responding is to point the nose downwards to capture air at a better angle.
