Air France Flight 447

Modern jetliners just aren’t supposed to fall out of the sky. It’s simply not acceptable (it’s not acceptable when smaller aircraft do it, either, by the way). Decades of refinement, engineering, development and lessons learned have produced an extremely safe worldwide air transportation system. That’s one reason the disappearance of an Airbus A330 operating as Air France Flight 447 from over the Atlantic Ocean almost three years ago is serving as a wake-up call to operators and pilots alike.

Key Takeaways:

• Air France Flight 447 crashed due to erroneous airspeed readings caused by blocked Pitot tubes, which led to autopilot disengagement and required manual flight.
• Despite their experience, the pilots failed to regain control, allowing the aircraft to enter and remain in a prolonged stall until it impacted the ocean.
• The accident underscores the critical need for pilots to maintain manual flying skills and situational awareness, even in highly automated environments, to effectively intervene when automation systems fail.

Key takeaways sponsored by Aviator Pro | Start Your Training ->

See a mistake? Contact us.