Final Words Of Air France Flight 447 Crew Revealed In New Book

A new book has revealed the final words of the cockpit crew of doomed Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the South Atlantic off the coast of Brazil in 2009, killing all 228 passengers and crew on board.

The final minutes of the flight recordings were published Friday for the first time and reveal confusion and shock in the cockpit as the Airbus A330 plunged into the sea.

The final exchange on the tapes includes pilot David Robert saying, "Damn it! We’re going to crash. It can’t be true!" Pilot Pierre-Cedric Bonin replies "But what’s happening?" before the recording ends.

The Daily Mail published the transcript, which now appears in a book by a French flight instructor who questions whether Airbus and Air France properly trained pilots to respond to the emergency.

This summer, accident investigators said the pilots were not sufficiently trained to manually control the jet in the event of a high-altitude stall, which occurred after an air-speed gauge became obstructed by ice.

That same report could not explain why the pilots continued to keep the plane's nose up, contrary to usual procedure during a stall. The newly revealed cockpit conversations also provide few answers to that question. It's hardly a moot point: The Mail reports that "Both Air France and Airbus are facing manslaughter charges, with a judicial investigation led by Paris judges already under way."

Comments

[badger2196]

03:04 PM on 10/17/2011

The problem was not the fact that the pilots couldn't recover form a stall but that they allowed the plane to get into a stall condition in the first place. Without an air speed indication, the pilots should know the exact combination of attitude and power setting for that aircraft that will guarantee that they maintain cruise speed. That was the part of their training that was lacking.

[jerry464]

01:29 PM on 12/02/2011

problem is complacency

[frank1946]

10:16 AM on 10/16/2011

What is the Problem with AirBus Aircraft..............at times only the AirPlane seems to know
what is happening and then it Crashes, killing everyone. Pilots need instruments that tell
them what is happening, not cheap sensors and electronics.

AirBus needs to wake up and fix the problems, this has been going on for a long time.

[badger2196]

03:05 PM on 10/17/2011

How are the pitot tubes on an Airbus any different to any other commercial aircraft?

[liephman88]

07:13 AM on 10/16/2011

Again AOL/Huffman place a story about a tragic airliner flight that kills everyone on the TRAVEL site, If I were paying to advertise my Vaction deal on this web site I would demand my money back!

[LolaStefani]

05:16 AM on 10/16/2011

I cannot see ANY good coming from making a pilot's last comments PUBLIC like this.

We live in a society that doesn't acknowledge anyone having survivors affected by this kind of revelation. Clearly, these men's families are.

Why is it humans like to inflict pain on other humans so readily?

[tyrdofwaitin]

09:02 AM on 10/16/2011

Thank you. Is NOTHING SACRED anymore? You're fanned

[aries932]

05:00 AM on 10/16/2011

Last words, "ithought you were taking care of that, holy $-!t".

[Immanuel Altmann]

02:55 AM on 10/16/2011

Air France and Airbus still trying to hide the tail weakness in their design that whole series of planes has it, plus the sensors icing up. Just look at the picture, there's your answer, poor design or engineering with composite materials in conjunction with hard demands on the aircraft structure, can easily cause problems. Even that high, those up front had about 10 seconds to figure out what was going on and sort it out before loss of control. True, simulator training can help, but it is always easiest to blame the pilots. I can remember and actually have the video of an experimental Airbus Air France pilotless control had in an airshow, and they Air France and Airbus said problem solved! When the plane was making the final automated approach and landing at the air show everything just looked great, then you hear "non, non, oh mon Dieux" [my God], only blessing there were no persons aboard, and no one died on the ground. Well maybe the pilots could have avoided the problem, BUT the tail broke off, and without a tail the plane is doomed, what are they supposed to do about that ?? In their worst days, other aircraft designers never permitted an occurence whereby the tail comes off, although I do remember engines falling off...those actually survived. All I can say is poor souls and may they all rest in peace.

[Lotti]

02:48 AM on 10/16/2011

What kind of an excuse is that ......"the pilots werent trained". Oh, so you risk the lives of a plane load of people and now they all lost their lives because of untrained pilots. I dont accept that excuse. Pilots who have hundreds of peoples lives in their hands should be trained right.

[tccat4]

01:53 AM on 10/16/2011

I don't think there is one Pilot that says " I want to die in a plane crash today" whether it is OJT or in the trainer, there is only so much that they can do with each scenario thrown at them. I can't imagine what my last words would be as a passenger or crew, but I hope either way, my future life would be appreciative of the last one.

[amavel]

01:49 AM on 10/16/2011

Cheers out to those that investigate crashes and come out with new ideas to make air travel safer. They do an outstanding job. Due to them, air travel has never been safer.

[FlyingRep]

01:00 AM on 10/16/2011

I remember this one though... This aircraft flew directly into a towering cumilus cloud.. that can be problimatic for anyone once inside.. it is possible the thunderstorm was embedded and when they entered it, unaware until it was too late, the turbulance was so intense the autopilot automatically was kicked off because they arent able to respond as quickly as humans... they could've easily overstressed the airframe in this case and then lost control as a result. it makes me wonder if the radar equipment had failed... i find it hard to believe these guys would fly directly into a storm that had 40k plus foot tops when they couldve gone around it.. airspeed fluctuations are to be expected if you enter into one of these storms.. probable large altitude deviations and wind shear that would be very difficult to compensate for.. an overall very tough scenario to deal with.. thats why we are supposed to circumnavigate these beasts..

[Dan Crabtree]

12:48 AM on 10/16/2011

In reality ufo's bring these planes down on a regular bases

[aries932]

04:58 AM on 10/16/2011

and they also cause people to make asanine postings on Huffington

[KadyFox]

05:18 AM on 10/16/2011

Not UFOs. GRAVITY!

[FlyingRep]

12:45 AM on 10/16/2011

according to this story the aircrafts pitot heat wasn't working??? i don't know.....
it is also a part of every pilot's instrument course to learn what to do if your pitot tube freezes over... how to recognize it and what to do about it.. i find it hard to believe neither one of them ever heard anything about pitot tube freezing and didn't know how to prevent it. its even more shocking that they didnt know how to recover from a stall.. the funniest thing is that this airplane is equipped with pushers and shakers and the aircraft automaticlly tries to correct.... how can they fly right through all of that??? classic for the dead pilots to get all the blame... i guess it saves the airline and aircraft manufacturer a lot of headaches.. no lawsuits, payouts and aircraft system changes... its always most convenient to blame the poor guys that were killed at the controls...

[ManicDeep]

02:17 AM on 10/16/2011

@FlyingRep: Maybe my reading comprehension leaves much to be desired, but didn't you just lay the blame on them also?

[FlyingRep]

12:29 AM on 10/16/2011

I want to contribute to this story. as you can guess from my name, i am a pilot... i think i can speak intelligently on this..

[jimlatp]

01:54 AM on 10/16/2011

That would be a first for you.

[FlyingRep]

12:27 AM on 10/16/2011

why are all of my posts being blocked moderator? there are only three pending...... what gives?

[FlyingRep]

12:27 AM on 10/16/2011

those pilots must have been terrified.