Recordings from the cockpit of the doomed Air France flight 447 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing 228 people, reveal the panic of the pilots onboard. Fourteen years after the disaster, Air France and Airbus were today cleared on involuntary manslaughter by a French court.
The Airbus 330 was travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when in crashed, killing everyone onboard, including five Brits and three Irish doctors. In the aftermath of the tragedy, concerning issues emerged relating to the professional conduct of the pilots, the Mirror reports.
A court found today that even if errors had been committed, it was not possible to prove a causal link between them and the disaster. The ruling comes after a public trial brought by relatives of the victims.
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Loved ones of those who died appeared stunned when the verdict was rules out, standing up and then sitting down again, AFP news agency reports. It was the first time a trial for corporate involuntary manslaughter has been held in France.
Marc Dubois, 58, David Robert, 37, and Pierre-Cedric Bonin, 32, were flying the aircraft that day. The follow-up investigation found that two of them fell asleep when they were meant to be piloting the plane, leaving the least experienced of the three in control.
Recordings from the cockpit reveal the terror of the pilots as it became clear it would crash, with panic setting in soon after a key piece of flight equipment failed. Robert can be heard saying: “F**k, we're going to crash! It's not true! But what's happening?”
Either Robert or Bonin then adds: “F***, we're dead.” Four hours and 15 minutes into the cross-continental flight, the plane crashed into the Atlantic.
Bonin was referred to as 'Company Baby' due to his junior position, but despite this was made to pilot the difficult part of the journey while the other two went to sleep. The report into the disaster read: “With most of the weather still lying ahead and an anxious junior pilot at the controls, Dubois decided it was time to get some sleep.”
The head of the investigation, Alain Bouillard, was unflinching in his criticism of Dubois. He said: “If the captain had stayed in position through the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone, it would have delayed his sleep by no more than 15 minutes, and because of his experience, maybe the story would have ended differently.
“But I do not believe it was fatigue that caused him to leave. It was more like customary behaviour, part of the piloting culture within Air France. And his leaving was not against the rules. Still, it is surprising. If you are responsible for the outcome, you do not go on vacation during the main event.”
It later emerged that Dubois' tiredness was likely caused by him being up the night before with his lover, an off-duty hostess and opera singer, who also died on the flight. He even admitted this to his colleagues, saying: “I didn't sleep enough last night. One hour - it's not enough.”
Key details about the flight's final moments took two years to emerge as the flight's voice recorder lay at the bottom of the sea, as did the bodies. Air France has maintained its innocence and denies the pilots it hired were incompetent – although the company did upgrade its pilot training after the incident.
Victims of the crash included 11-year-old Alexander Bjoroy, who was a border at Bristol's Clifton College. He had been spending half-term with his parents, who were based in South America. Dr Eithne Walls, 28, from Ballygowan, Co Down, who had starred in Riverdance on Broadway, was also on board.
The French air accident investigation agency, BEA, found that the captain was on a break when warnings were first sounded. But there was “no evidence of task sharing” among his co-pilots, neither of whom were trained to fly manually or at high altitudes.
Passengers were never told what was happening as the plan dived for three-and-a-half minutes before hitting the sea. External speed sensors, suspected of icing up, have since been updated.
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