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- Oct 29, 2003
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The Rio-to-Paris flight took off in the evening of May 31 and travelled through a very active storm system that other flights chose to fly around. ... ... ... ice began to form on the hull of the plane. The exterior temperature gauges malfunctioned, showing a rise in temperature despite a steady altitude of 11,000 metres.
Suddenly unaware of how fast they were travelling, the pilots were forced to manually re-calculate the plane’s correct angle and thrust. Shortly after they began trying to do so, the engines stalled, probably due to the fact that airflow over the wings was no longer providing any lift.
Sensor reports show that the nose was raised upward at a benign 5 degree angle on impact.
At 2:11, the automatic guidance system could no longer make any sense of the available data. It shut itself off.
At 2:12, the plane was in free fall.
At 2:13, the pilots attempted to restart the plane’s engines.
As it fell, the plane reached downward speeds of more than 150 km/h
At the point of impact, the plane was under pressure equivalent to 36 times the force of gravity, or 36 Gs.
At 2:14, AF 447 landed on the surface of the Atlantic fully intact and then shattered.
According to Der Spiegel, the icing problem continues to affect pitot tubes on Airbus planes. The company does offer a $420,000 add-on that will allow pilots to calibrate their bearings if the pitot tubes fail. Air France planes do not have that option.
The Rio-to-Paris flight took off in the evening of May 31 and travelled through a very active storm system that other flights chose to fly around. ... ... ... ice began to form on the hull of the plane. The exterior temperature gauges malfunctioned, showing a rise in temperature despite a steady altitude of 11,000 metres.
Suddenly unaware of how fast they were travelling, the pilots were forced to manually re-calculate the plane’s correct angle and thrust. Shortly after they began trying to do so, the engines stalled, probably due to the fact that airflow over the wings was no longer providing any lift.
Sensor reports show that the nose was raised upward at a benign 5 degree angle on impact.
At 2:11, the automatic guidance system could no longer make any sense of the available data. It shut itself off.
At 2:12, the plane was in free fall.
At 2:13, the pilots attempted to restart the plane’s engines.
As it fell, the plane reached downward speeds of more than 150 km/h
At the point of impact, the plane was under pressure equivalent to 36 times the force of gravity, or 36 Gs.
At 2:14, AF 447 landed on the surface of the Atlantic fully intact and then shattered.
According to Der Spiegel, the icing problem continues to affect pitot tubes on Airbus planes. The company does offer a $420,000 add-on that will allow pilots to calibrate their bearings if the pitot tubes fail. Air France planes do not have that option.
