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 indications caused by blocked Pitot probes, leading to autopilot disengagement and the crew's inability to maintain control.
• Despite multiple warnings and opportunities, the flight crew continuously made nose-up inputs, causing the aircraft to enter and remain in a prolonged stall until impact with the sea.
• The incident highlights the critical need for pilots to remain proficient in manual flight and engaged with aircraft systems, even in highly automated cockpits, to effectively handle unexpected failures.

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