Aviation Accidents and the Lessons learned
Accidents and Lessons Learned Air France Flight 447 was an Airbus A330 that was travelling from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean after stalling mid-air. The flight data recorders were not recovered until May 2011. They showed that the crash was ultimately the result of the crew’s failure to respond correctly after icing of the pitot tubes caused the autopilot to disconnect - with catastrophic consequences. Having departed Rio de Janeiro-Galeão International Airport on 31 May, 2009, at 19:29 local time, the aircraft last made contact at 01:35 UTC, which was three hours and six minutes after departure. At this point, it passed into a so-called “dead zone” – that is, an area where an aircraft falls outside of the communication range of either air traffic control or other aircraft. Due to the length of the flight, each of the pilots were allocated a rest break; the captain had arranged to take the second slot and left the cockpit at 02:...