Pilot incompetence caused 2009 Air France crash
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Pilot training is in the spotlight again after an air crash investigation blamed cockpit confusion for the 2009 Air France disaster in which 228 people were killed. After a lengthy investigation, the French BEA aircraft accident bureau advised aviation authorities revise pilot training and make changes to aircraft certification, flight recorders and data transmission.BEA Chief Investigator Alain Bouillard offered damning comments on the pilot performance moments before the aircraft went down. In a public interview, he said there was “total incomprehension of the situation” among the pilots who were heard in flight recordings saying “they don’t know what’s going on”. The cockpit was also poorly organised, with data showing the youngest of the three pilots in control for most of the emergency period after the engines stalled. Paul Hayes, Director of Safety at London-based aviation consulting firm Ascend Worldwide, told Bloomberg that the pilots misinterpreted the stall warnings. They “misidentified the situation” believing they were travelling too fast when in fact Flight 447 was losing altitude because its air velocity was too low. The 32-year-old pilot mistakenly angled the plan nose-higher throughout the decent. Instead, he should have dropped the nose to build airspeed as guidelines recommend when trying to restart stalled engines.Consequently Bouillard has called on regulators to improve training requirements. Training for high-speed stall is not currently mandatory and neither of the Air France co-pilots had received any training for this scenario.Air France has staunchly defended its training procedures and the competency of its crew members. The airline released a statement saying; “Air France pays tribute to the courage and determination they showed in such extreme conditions.”
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