Air France 447 Stalled at High Altitude, Official BEA Report Confirms

Bethany Whitfield

Friday, May 27, 2011 at 08:03 PM ET

Verified

** This image details Air France 447's path
during its final minutes in the air.** BEA

Key Takeaways:

An official investigative report confirmed Air France 447 crashed due to a high-altitude stall, plummeting 38,000 feet into the Atlantic after its autopilot disengaged.
While the captain was out of the cockpit, co-pilots made continuous nose-up inputs, causing the aircraft to climb and stall, triggering multiple warnings.
Contributing factors included inconsistent airspeed readings that confused the pilots, and the crew's failure to recognize or attempt recovery from the stall condition.

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An official investigative report confirms speculation that Air France 447, the flight that crashed into the Atlantic two years ago under then-mysterious circumstances, suffered a high-altitude stall before descending 38,000 feet in 3.5 minutes and crashing into the ocean

According to the preliminary accident report issued by the BEA, the captain had just relinquished control to the two co-pilots and left the cockpit when the first sign of a problem occurred, approximately two hours into the flight.