DEATH PLUNGE
Inside horror AirFrance flight crash that killed 228 when panicked pilot stalled jet that plunged into Atlantic Ocean
A CATASTROPHIC chain of events saw a passenger jet plummet into the Atlantic Ocean - killing all 228 on board in the worst plane tragedy in French history.
Experienced pilots failed to recover the plane after it stalled and it vanished into the night without a distress call, disappearing from radars as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a storm.
6
6
6
Two aviation giants are now facing a manslaughter trial more than a decade on as mystery still surrounds details of the doomed flight.
The families of the 228 victims, including five Brits, have faced a mammoth fight for justice as AirFrance and Airbus shift the blame for the doomed flight on June 1, 2009.
Passengers had clamoured on board the ill-fated Airbus A330-203 in Rio de Janeiro to head to Paris in the early hours of the morning - but it disappeared without authorities being alerted.
Days later debris from the AirFrance plane was found floating in the water, sparking a £27million two-year search of the depths of the sea.
READ MORE ON PLANE CRASHES
The missing key to unlock what exactly had unfolded in the cockpit - the black box flight data and voice recorders - had sunk 12,000ft below the surface.
Its discovery turned out to be the most decisive step in the investigation led by French authorities into the deaths of 216 passengers, 12 crew members and three pilots.
Harrowing flight recordings revealed the final frantic moments of the captain Marc Dubois and two co-pilots David Robert and Pierre-Cédric Bonin as they realised their fate.
A brief interruption in their airspeed indications - lasting less than a minute - had bizarrely paralysed the trio who had more than 20,000 hours of flying experience between them.
Most read in The Sun
"We've lost our speeds," one co-pilot cried, before other indicators mistakenly suggested the aircraft was losing altitude.
"I don’t know what’s happening," another added as the cockpit screens were lit up by a series of alarm messages.
The plane’s speed sensors– known as pitot tubes – were said to have iced up as the storm battered the AirFrance flight.
Each pitot tube measures the pressure of the oncoming air, which is then compared to the static pressure to derive the plane’s airspeed.
It triggered a catastrophic chain of events that left 228 bodies floating in the icy waters.
The autopilot was disabled while the men in the cockpit were left deciphering a string of confusing speed and altitude information.
They resumed manual piloting unknowingly following the incorrect navigation data, while being pounded by turbulence.
The pilots mistakenly pointed the nose of the plane upwards when it entered an aerodynamic stall - instead of downwards.
The 205-tonne jet was then in freefall, plummeting 11,500metres from the sky in just four minutes and 24 seconds.
Warning sounds alerting the three crew members to the issue sounded 75 times as they tumbled towards the Atlantic Ocean.
Questions of blame quickly began to swirl, with the world left baffled as to how the Airbus A330, with an impeccable safety record and no record of fatal accidents in passenger service, had plummeted.
Thirteen years on from the tragedy, Air France and the aircraft producer Airbus are being tried on charges of involuntary manslaughter.
It is the first time French companies have been directly placed on trial after an air crash, rather than individuals.
The loved ones of victims - of 33 different nationalities - battled for years to bring the case to court and have accused the firms of having "scorned" them in recent years.
Among those who died on the Airbus was Graham Gardner, an oil worker from Gourock, in Renfrewshire, and Arthur Coakley, an engineer from Whitby in North Yorkshire.
6
6
6
Alexander Bjoroy, an 11-year-old boarder at Clifton College in Bristol, died, as did PR executive Neil Warrior.
As the trial finally got underway on October 10, cries of "shame" and "too little, too late" erupted in the courtroom from relatives.
Both AirFrance and Airbus have denied the allegations that their negligence led to the catastrophic plane crash.
The aerospace top dogs have blamed pilot error for the tragedy, while the airline insists the crew were confused by the puzzling alarms and data.
France’s air investigation agency (BEA) said the crew responded incorrectly to the icing problem, but also did not have the training needed to fly manually at high altitude after the autopilot dropped out.
It also highlighted inconsistent signals from a display called the flight director, which has since been redesigned to switch itself off in such events to avoid confusion.
Daniele Lamy, whose son Eric, 37, was onboard, said: "Thirteen years we have been waiting for this day and we have prepared for a long time.
"We expect an impartial and exemplary trial so that this never happens again, and that as a result the two defendants will make safety their priority instead of only profitability."
She described the court case battling the aviation giants, expected to last until December, as "David against Goliath."
It will be centred around why the experienced pilots failed to understand the plane had stalled and was unable to recover.
The French court will hear testimony from dozens of aviation experts and pilots, as well as a blow-by-blow account of the final minutes of the fatal flight.
Alain Jakubowicz, a lawyer for the victims' group Mutual Aid and Solidarity, said: "It's going to be a very technical trial, but our goal is also to re-introduce the human element."
Ophélie Toulliou, whose brother, Nicolas, 27, died in the crash, told French media: “The message is to make companies that think they’re untouchable understand ‘you’re like everyone else and if you make mistakes, [you] will be punished’.”
Both AirFrance and Airbus are charged with manslaughter and face a maximum fine of €225,000 if found guilty.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
The sum is financially insignificant for groups with revenues of billions of euros a year, but a conviction would inflict considerable damage on their reputations, analysts say.
No individuals are accused of any wrongdoing.
Topics