The crash of Air France Flight 447 stumped investigators for more than two years and even now there are some unanswered questions. What lessons can the aviation industry take from this tragedy to ensure the safety of long-distance travelers?

I’ve been investigating air safety and covering airline accidents for more than 30 years, and in almost all cases, the mysteries of why planes crash is usually solved. Sometimes investigators know the probable cause almost immediately. Sometimes it takes months. But in the case of Air France Flight 447, the probable cause finding has already taken more than two years.

This much is known about Air France Flight 447, which crashed on a routine overnight flight between Brazil and Paris on May 31, 2009:

The plane was flying at 35,000 feet when it encountered turbulence. The crew disengaged the autopilot and tried to fly above and around the storm. But the speed sensors apparently were frozen, and had been giving the pilots indications they were flying much faster than they were. So when the autopilot disengaged and the pilots attempted to gain altitude, they essentially put the Airbus 330 into a high-speed stall.

Worse, almost all their instruments started to malfunction. The nose of the lane pushed up more than 10 degrees (and at one point hit 16 degrees). Airspeed plummeted, and the plane literally dropped out of the sky and into the ocean below. All 228 people aboard perished.

At one point the jet was dropping at the rate of 10,000 feet per minute. And in about 3 minutes and 30 seconds it impacted the water.

Air France has already been charged with manslaughter in a French court, the allegations being that the speed sensors were defective and that the airline knew about it and had not fixed them. But as in any plane disaster, no one reason is usually responsible. It’s two or more causes, which, in concert, create a situation that cannot be overcome.

And such is the case with AF 447. This much we know:

The equipment was defective. The pilots were confused and eventually disoriented. They pulled the nose up when they should have pushed it down.

The Continuing Mystery

Then there is the unexplained location and condition of the tail of the aircraft. It was one of the only large pieces of the plane initially found intact �� dozens of miles from the impact location. A number of veteran investigators are suggesting that the tail itself may have been part of the probable cause.

It may eventually get down to the resilience and the performance parameters of the non-metallic materials used in the construction of the Airbus, which includes the tail. Composite materials are the new darlings of airplane manufacturers. On the plus side, they weigh less and they don’t corrode. On the minus side, composite materials are brittle and can easily snap.

That is why those same investigators contend that if the tail had stayed attached to the plane at the point of impact, it would have fractured into hundreds of pieces. But the tail was found intact, floating on the surface of the ocean. The unanswered question: Did turbulence contribute to the tail of the plane literally breaking off?

Lessons for the Airline Industry

As in all airplane disasters there is much to learn for future flights, and for those lessons to be applied by manufacturers, airlines and air crews. One of the growing problems of state-of-the-art aircraft �� of which the Airbus 330 is certainly one �� is that when technology supplants much needed flying experience, or it allows flight crews to leapfrog the basics.

It’s been said that current day pilots don’t fly planes as much as they simple monitor systems.

When those systems work, when the planets are all aligned, this is fine. But when the systems fail, it’s up to the pilots to truly fly the aircraft. and that’s when years of experience makes the difference.

Needless to say, the investigation into the probable cause of Fight 447 is continuing. The speed sensors have since been fixed. Was it just one flight system, or one plane? Or is the problem more widespread?

Now the hard work is at hand to find more information so that the real mystery of Flight 447 can be solved. Stay tuned.

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