While Malaysian authorities approach the seventh day of searching for missing Flight MH370 – which vanished without a trace on Saturday morning – many have begun to draw parallels between the missing passenger jet and the fatal Air France Flight 447 of 2009.
In the early hours of June 1 2009, Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janerio to Paris disappeared mid-ocean carrying 228 passengers and crew. The aircraft’s apparent evaporation into thin air was so shocking it took a confused Air France six hours to concede its loss. Up until that point no other airliner had gone missing so completely in modern times.
It took five agonising days to find the wreckage but even then the disaster was no less perplexing. The crash investigators said based on an initial study of the fragments, that the plane was intact when it hit the ocean, but that the cause of the crash was still unknown.
Further examinations into exact causes of the tragedy were hindered because the flight’s black boxes, which record the conversations in the cockpit and data about the planes controls and sensors, were missing.
After nearly two years of searching, the Airbus A330 black box was found and finally told the story of a frightened and confused crew that unsuccessfully tried to navigate their way through a major storm and finally crashed into the Atlantic Ocean.
Before the discovery it was widely believed that the tragedy had occurred due to technical faults of the Airbus passenger jet. However, a post-finding report, released in July 2012, suggested that the that the plane crashed after pilots did not react effectively to complications with the speed devices and were unable to correct the aircraft’s trajectory when things went wrong.
The report found that ice formed and blocked the pitot tubes, which help gauge air speed, the autopilot disengaged and pilots did not know how to respond, leading to an aerodynamic stall.
The information from the leaked transcripts, republished below, paints a frightening picture of the moments when AFF447 fell 38,000ft from the air.
1:36: The aircraft enter the outer extremities of a tropical storm. Unlike other aircraft flying through the region, AF447’s flight crew has not changed the route to avoid the worst of the storm system.
1:51: The cockpit becomes illuminated by a strange electrical phenomenon. The most junior aviator, 32-year-old Pierre-Cedric Bonin, asks, “What’s that?” The flights captain, Marc Dubois, a pilot with more than 11,000 hours flying experience assures him it’s St Elmo’s fire, an electrical fluorescence common in equatorial thunderstorms.
2:02: Around four hours into the 11-hour overnight journey passengers on the aircraft are preparing for bed. Dubois leaves the flight deck to take a routine break. His deputy pilot, David Robert, an experienced pilot with 6,500 hours of experience, capable of flying through the storm is in the cockpit. Bonin however is left in charge of the controls.
2:06: Bonin notifies the cabin crew to prepare for bumpy turbulence; unaware that within the next 15 minutes everyone on board would be dead.
The two co-pilots discuss the strangely elevated external temperature, which has prevented them from climbing to their desired altitude and yet express happiness that they are flying an Airbus 330, which has better performance at altitude than an Airbus 340.
2.07: Because they are flying through clouds, the pilots turn on the anti-icing system to try to keep ice off the flight surfaces as ice can weigh the aircraft down and in extreme circumstances can cause it to crash.
As the air temperature reduces, the pitot tubes ice and an alarm sounds to warn that autopilot had disengaged.
2:10: Bonin says “J’ai les commandes” or “I have the controls.”
Bonin’s next set of behaviour is confusing for professional pilots to understand as he pulls back on the side stick to climb, even though he has deliberated with Robert how this could not happen safely because of the high outside temperature.
“STALL! STALL!” an electronic voice repeatedly calls out. To recuperate from a possibly hazardous stall, pilots are taught to push the controls forward to gain speed but Bonin does the opposite of what he is trained to do and continues to pull back.
“STALL!” the digitalised voice blasts and will continue to blast throughout the cockpit 75 times.
The struggling aircraft climbs 7,000 feet per minute compromising speed.
02:10:27: (Robert) Pay attention to your speed.
02:10:28: (Bonin) OK, OK, I’m descending.
02:10:30: (Robert) Stabilise…
Bonin finally eases back pressure on the stick and the plane accelerates to 223 knots. The stall warning ceases and for a moment, the co-pilots are in control of the aircraft.
02:10:41: Robert pushes a button to summon the captain and seven seconds later questions where Dubois is.
The plane has ascended to 2512 feet above its initial altitude, and though it is still climbing at a dangerously high rate but the Airbus 330 can withstand this pressure. But then, for reasons unknown, Bonin, going against all the training, raises the nose of the plane and causes the speed to bleed off. “STALL! STALL!” The alarm begins to sound again.
The pilots seemingly ignore it, perhaps believing it is impossible to stall an aircraft. According to experts this is not so hard to understand. Under normal circumstances, or “normal law”, the flight control computer will not allow an aircraft to stall. But once the computer lost its airspeed data the autopilot disconnected and “alternate law”, a regime with far fewer pilot restrictions, was engaged. Under alternate law, an aircraft can stall.
Bonin had perhaps never flown a plane in alternate law and so he perhaps didn’t realise that the restrictions in place for stalling had now been removed.
02:11:03: (Bonin) I’m in TOGA, huh?
TOGA is an acronym for Take Off, Go Around. Possibly panicking, Bonin reverted to flying the plane as if it was close to the ground.
02:11:06: (Robert) Damn it, is he [the captain] coming or not?
The plane now reaches its maximum altitude. With engines at full power, the nose is aimed up, it fleetingly levels and then drops toward the ocean.
02:11:21: (Robert) We still have the engines! What the hell is happening? I don’t understand what’s happening.
By now both co-pilots are flying the plane simultaneously. It is assumed that Robert is unaware that his junior pilot is continuing to pull back on his stick as he cannot feel what pressure Bonin has on his set of controls. The plane plummets faster toward the sea.
02:11:32: (Bonin) Damn it, I don’t have control of the plane, I don’t have control of the plane at all!
Robert takes control briefly but then Bonin takes them back.
One and a half minutes since the crisis began, the captain returns to the flight deck. “STALL! STALL! STALL!” continues to boom.
02:11:43: (Dubois) What the hell are you doing?
02:11:45: (Bonin) We’ve lost control of the plane!
02:11:47: (Robert) We’ve totally lost control of the plane. We don’t understand at all… We’ve tried everything.
In the following seconds, all the recorded speeds became invalid and the stall warning stopped. This may have disillusioned the pilots into thinking their situation has improved, when it’s actually the opposite.
The altitude was about 35,000ft but the plane was descending at about 10,000ft per minute at an angle of 41.5 degrees. The out of control aircraft will continue at this angle with little deviation all the way into the ocean.
At no stage does the captain take physical control of the plane. Dubois remains seated behind the other two. Many speculate that had the most experienced man on the flight deck taken control he might have recognised the insanity of pulling back on the controls while stalled.
Some speculate the captain may not have wanted to have either pilot disengage control in what may have been rough gyrations. He was possibly in a better viewing position from behind but clearly Dubois hadn’t been able to see the most critical piece of information that will tell him why the aircraft is behaving the way it is- he can’t see someone has been holding the controls back for virtually the entire time.
02:12:14: (Robert) What do you think? What do you think? What should we do?
02:12:15: (Captain) Well, I don’t know!
As the craft descends to 10,000 feet, Robert tries to take back the controls, and pushes forward on the stick but the aeroplane is in “dual input” mode, and so the system will only averages his efforts with those of Bonin, who continues to firmly pull back.
02:13:40: (Robert) Climb… climb… climb… climb…
02:13:40: (Bonin) But I’ve had the stick back the whole time!
Finally! A confession which suggests that Bonin was in over his head.
02:13:42: (Captain) No, no, no… Don’t climb… no, no.
02:13:43: (Robert) Descend, then… Give me the controls… Give me the controls!
The plane is falling fast and Robert take control and puts the nose down. It picks up speed. As they drop to 2,000 feet sensors detect the fast-approaching surface and prompt a new alarm. The time to build speed has run out. Bonin seizes back the controls and jerks his side stick once again all the way back.
02:14:23: (Robert) Damn it, we’re going to crash… This can’t be happening!
02:14:25: (Bonin) But what’s happening?
02:14:27: (Captain) Ten degrees of pitch…
1.4 seconds later, the recording ceases. The plane has crashed. There are no survivors.
With no trace of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight authorities are still left wondering how could a technologically state-of-the art airliner simply vanish? There are so many questions and if authorities have learned anything from Air France tragedy it may be that if the plane did indeed crash, without the black box they may never understand what exactly happened to Flight MH370.
