May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Air France Flight 447 crashed after the Airbus A330 lost speed and stalled before beginning a three- and-a-half minute plunge into the Atlantic Ocean that killed all 228 people on board, an investigation found.
The findings, presented by the French BEA air-accident investigation bureau today, show the autopilot and auto-thrust system disengaged shortly after the pilots had alerted cabin crew of possible turbulence ahead. One of the co-pilots present in the cockpit took over, according to taped conversation from one of the flight recorders, and began edging the jet higher.
The preliminary analysis sheds more light on the final minutes before the deadliest crash in Air France’s history, with the pilots scrambling to avert disaster as the jet hurtled toward the ocean surface at a speed of 180 feet (55 meters) a second. The investigation achieved a breakthrough after the two flight recorders were recovered from 3,900 meters (12,800 feet) beneath the Atlantic and returned to Paris this month, two years after the jet disappeared into the night on June 1, 2009.
A low-speed stall occurs when an aircraft slows to the point where its wings suddenly lose lift, an incident pilots are trained to overcome. Earlier transmits from the jet had already shown that airspeed sensors, or pitot tubes, made by Thales SA, had failed, presenting pilots with a sharp drop in speed readings on their displays.
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