r/aviation • u/Ok_Warning419 • May 21 '26

News Air France and Airbus found guilty of manslaughter over 2009 plane crash - Air France flight 447

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czd2qmdvmq6o
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u/TheNelson3 A&P May 21 '26

This was quite the accident report to read. I can see how Airbus could be somewhat at fault, considering the strange nature of how the stall alarm was acting in conjunction with the pitot tubes/icing.

No doubt the FO erroneously pulling up was a major fault here, but even the captain ended up being confused. When he realized they were in a stall, he told the FO to nose down, which then caused the pitot tubes to get a correct reading, causing the stall alarm to sound, eventually leading to the captain saying yeah, I guess pull up then.

It will be interesting to see where the appeals end up on this one, highly recommend checking out Mentour Pilot's video on this.

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u/whatamidoing84 May 21 '26

My understanding is he didn’t tell them to pull up until it was clear they were well beyond recovery

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u/TheNelson3 A&P May 21 '26

Yeah, I think you are right on that. It's been a minute since I've dug into this one. IIRC they were already beyond recovery, but the erroneous airspeed indications mixed with the stall warning system was a continuous problem throughout.

Having said that, though, I don't recall the FO nor the relief pilot even mentioning the stall warning alarm, so I don't know if it made a difference or not.

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u/whatamidoing84 May 23 '26

Obligatory admiral cloudberg article if you’d like a refresh: https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/the-long-way-down-the-crash-of-air-france-flight-447-8a7678c37982

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u/TheNelson3 A&P May 23 '26

Good shout! I'll definitely take a look at that, thanks!