France's air-crash investigation agency has released an updated report on what happened aboard Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic two years ago.
As described here, the plane stalled at 38,000 feet--meaning that its speed slowed to the point where its wings no longer generated enough lift for the plane to remain in the air--and it then plummeted at 10,000 feet per minute into the Atlantic.
All the way down, the pilots tried to regain control of the aircraft, but failed. The plane remained in a stall despite having all its engines operating normally at full thrust.
(To visualize this, think of a plane with the nose up about 40-degrees-- almost halfway to vertical--falling pretty much straight down, without much air moving over the wings. Planes can't fly like that.).
The report makes it clear that at least one of the plane's speed indicators failed when the plane was flying normally, and when it did, the auto-pilot cut out. The co-pilot then took over manual control of the plane. And, based on the report, it appears he then fatally screwed up.
Specifically, the co-pilot pulled the plane's nose up, causing it to climb and causing its speed to decrease.
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