3.5 minutes of terror: Air France crash dropped at 10,000 feet a minutePassengers on an Air France flight plunged for three and a half minutes before crashing into the Atlantic, killing all 228 on board, after it lost speed and stalled while the main pilot was resting, the first evidence from black boxes has found.
AF447's junior pilot battled to save the Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight, as the second pilot tried to rouse the captain shortly after the plane had begun its fateful descent in a tropical storm.
According to flight recorder data, the younger of the two men, Pierre-Cédric Bonin, 32, angled the jet's nose higher, a position the aircraft maintained until its final impact, after inconsistent speed readings confused the plane.
Aviation experts asked why the pilot kept giving nose-up inputs when the plane was in a stall, given that one normally puts the nose down to recover speed and regain control.
All 228 people on board – including crew – died after the Airbus hurtled into the Atlantic at a speed of 180 feet a second in the worst disaster in Air France's history.
David Robert, 37, the second pilot, had begun anxiously calling for their more experienced captain after autopilot suddenly cut out four hours after take-off. Captain Marc Dubois, returned a minute and a half later, but never retook control of the plane – instead leaving the flying to his assistants.
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Releasing preliminary findings yesterday, France's accident investigation office, the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA), said they showed the co-pilots decided to turn slightly to the left to avoid a zone of turbulence, warning cabin crew to expect the plane to "move around" in forthcoming turbulence.
Two minutes later the autopilot disengaged, the instruments began showing that the speed had slowed dramatically and the engine stall warning began to sound.
The BEA said the pilots received inconsistent speed readings for around a minute, with one pilot saying: "We have no valid indications." This suggests there was a problem with the plane's speed sensors, so-called Pitot tubes that an earlier preliminary investigation had indicated might have contributed to the crash.
The pilots responded by pulling up the nose of the aircraft, triggering a stall warning in the cockpit.
According to the BEA, the co-pilots continued to increase the angle of climb, rising rapidly from 35,000 feet to 37,500 feet. When a third stall warning sounded, they continued to pull back on the controls with the engines set to full thrust and rose to about 38,000 feet, where the plane entered a stall.
With the plane's nose still pointed up about 15 degrees, the jet began falling at about 10,000 feet a minute, rolling left and right. Almost one minute into the stall, the pilots had reduced engine thrust and tried pushing down on the controls to lower the nose.
Airspeed indications returned and the alarm sounded again as the stalled aircraft picked up some speed, but the plane never recovered.
I'm not easily scared, but a 10,000 feet a minute drop squicks the hell out of me.