The fate of Air France Flight 447 was sealed in just four minutes. That short time span began with the first warning message on one of the Airbus A330 aircraft's monitors and ended with the plane crashing into the Atlantic between Brazil and Africa, killing all 228 people on board.
Since last week, investigators from France's BEA civil aviation safety bureau have been analyzing the flight data and voice recordings extracted from the cockpit of the Air France flight that crashed on June 1, 2009 while traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. What they have learned from the recordings seems to suggest both technical and human failure.
Sources close to the investigative team have revealed that the recordings indicate that Marc Dubois, the aircraft's 58-year-old pilot, was not in the cockpit at the time the trouble began. It is reportedly audible that Dubois rushed back into the cockpit. "He called instructions to the two co-pilots on how to save the aircraft," the source with inside knowledge of the investigation told sources.
But their attempts to save the plane were ultimately in vain.
Even if the captain's absence from the cockpit may support the pilot-error theory, the data includes clues indicating that the aircraft itself might have behaved in an odd manner. Under these circumstances, investigators are facing a complicated case that might still have surprises in store.
Until now, it appeared that the crew of Flight AF 447 had steered the plane directly into a severe storm that eventually caused the speed sensors to ice over.
But the flight path recorded by the black box reportedly shows that the crew had been trying to find the safest possible path through the storm front. They initially appear to have succeeded as the flight data doesn't contain any evidence of more severe turbulence.
But the storms in the so-called Intertropical Convergence Zone are treacherous. As if in a vast chimney, massive amounts of water are sucked up to great heights, where they are then transformed into ice crystals which are hard to detect on weather radars. It is precisely this type of ice trap that the Air France plane probably flew into.
Whatever the case might be, the frozen speed sensors put the pilots in a precarious situation: At this altitude, they would have had to maintain a very precise speed to prevent the plane from stalling.
Pilots have dubbed this dangerous flight condition "deep stall." "If the plane can't make a recovery, it plummets at breakneck speed," explains Jean François Huzen, an Air France captain and union representative for pilots.
At this point, there is hardly anyone who doubts that the plane experienced a fatal deep stall. Evidence for this can already be found in the location of the plane's wreckage, roughly 10 kilometers from the last position the plane transmitted via satellite.
The fact is that, at the time of the catastrophe, the Air France pilots had been poorly briefed about the growing number of speed-sensor failures -- and, more importantly, about the right way to respond to them.
Previously the micro-burst caused the NASA to probe into the crash that happened near DALLAS, texas which eventually led into use of DOPPLER RADARS, now in this case it arises whether new radar design or speed sensor be redesigned..
But the case is in preliminary stage its hard to do verdict i.e who to blame pilot or aircrafts??? lets WAIT!
Sources close to the investigative team have revealed that the recordings indicate that Marc Dubois, the aircraft's 58-year-old pilot, was not in the cockpit at the time the trouble began. It is reportedly audible that Dubois rushed back into the cockpit. "He called instructions to the two co-pilots on how to save the aircraft," the source with inside knowledge of the investigation told sources.
But their attempts to save the plane were ultimately in vain.
Even if the captain's absence from the cockpit may support the pilot-error theory, the data includes clues indicating that the aircraft itself might have behaved in an odd manner. Under these circumstances, investigators are facing a complicated case that might still have surprises in store.
Until now, it appeared that the crew of Flight AF 447 had steered the plane directly into a severe storm that eventually caused the speed sensors to ice over.
But the flight path recorded by the black box reportedly shows that the crew had been trying to find the safest possible path through the storm front. They initially appear to have succeeded as the flight data doesn't contain any evidence of more severe turbulence.
But the storms in the so-called Intertropical Convergence Zone are treacherous. As if in a vast chimney, massive amounts of water are sucked up to great heights, where they are then transformed into ice crystals which are hard to detect on weather radars. It is precisely this type of ice trap that the Air France plane probably flew into.
Whatever the case might be, the frozen speed sensors put the pilots in a precarious situation: At this altitude, they would have had to maintain a very precise speed to prevent the plane from stalling.
Pilots have dubbed this dangerous flight condition "deep stall." "If the plane can't make a recovery, it plummets at breakneck speed," explains Jean François Huzen, an Air France captain and union representative for pilots.
At this point, there is hardly anyone who doubts that the plane experienced a fatal deep stall. Evidence for this can already be found in the location of the plane's wreckage, roughly 10 kilometers from the last position the plane transmitted via satellite.
The fact is that, at the time of the catastrophe, the Air France pilots had been poorly briefed about the growing number of speed-sensor failures -- and, more importantly, about the right way to respond to them.
Previously the micro-burst caused the NASA to probe into the crash that happened near DALLAS, texas which eventually led into use of DOPPLER RADARS, now in this case it arises whether new radar design or speed sensor be redesigned..
But the case is in preliminary stage its hard to do verdict i.e who to blame pilot or aircrafts??? lets WAIT!
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