It took just three-and-a-half minutes for Air France flight AF 447 to plunge 11,000 meters into the Atlantic two years ago. An initial analysis of the plane’s data recorder hints at errors made by the pilots. But questions have also been raised about the A330′s automated control systems.
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Everything pointed to a routine flight, two years ago. The Airbus A330 was flying along at its cruising altitude high above the Atlantic Ocean and had just passed an area of light turbulence. The captain of the flight, Marc Dubois, left the cockpit for a bit of rest.
Co-pilot Pierre-Cédric Bonin, whose wife was a passenger onboard the aircraft, told the cabin crew that “in two minutes we should enter an area where it’ll move about a bit more than at the moment.”
The co-pilot’s exact words are part of the interim report on the crash of Air France flight AF 447, released by the French aviation accident investigation agency BEA on Friday. The report, dry and almost entirely free of commentary, provides insight into the final three-and-a-half minutes of the flight, before it plunged into the Atlantic killing all 228 people on board. . .