Jean-Claude was in the left seat. He was senior to me, but I was flying. We were near the equator, where Mermoz and Guillaumet had once flown — but they, poor fellows, had not been at 35,000 feet! We entered the clouds at what looked like a soft spot in a squall line. At first it wasn’t bad, but then the turbulence came, and with it lightning that never stopped, as if ogres with lanterns were laughing around us.
This Did Not Happen
Key Takeaways:
- A flight crew encountered severe icing that led to instrument failure and a deep aerodynamic stall, which they inadvertently worsened by pitching up.
- Awakened senior Captain Dubois intuitively took control, counter-intuitively pushing the aircraft's nose down to recover from the deep stall and regain flight control.
- The incident highlighted Captain Dubois's profound pilot intuition and experience in handling an unprecedented emergency not covered by standard procedures or modern systems.
- The article concludes by lamenting the increasing rarity of such veteran pilots, whose instinctive understanding can be crucial in unforeseen and critical situations.
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