Incident on an Air France flight on landing: towards pilot responsibility

Europe 1 with AFP 11:46 a.m., April 28, 2022

The investigation opened into the causes of the "serious incident", at the beginning of April, of an Air France Boeing 777 in the landing phase at Roissy points to the responsibility of the pilots, according to an update on the investigations released on Wednesday by the Bureau of Investigations and Analysis (BEA).

Approaching Paris airport on April 4, the crew of flight AF011 New York-Paris had performed a go-around as they prepared to land.

The plane, with 177 passengers and 15 crew members on board, finally landed safely after a second approach.

The analysis of the black boxes seems to rule out any technical problem

“We went over the gas, therefore, flight control problem, the plane did almost anything”, explained the pilot to the control tower, according to audio extracts of the exchanges between the cockpit and the tower posted on the internet.

The analysis of the black boxes containing the recording of the flight data (FDR) and the conversations in the cockpit (CVR) seems to rule out any technical problem.

"No malfunction alarm was triggered during the event. No anomaly was observed on the aircraft," says the BEA.

All the action took place in less than a minute, details the investigation office.

While at an altitude of 340 meters, a different perception of the situation between the captain and the co-pilot caused them to abort the descent and go around.

This did not seem justified because "until the go-around, the trajectory remained within the operator's stabilization criteria", according to the BEA.

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Air France brings "its full collaboration to the investigation"

The "plate", that is to say the angle of ascent, was then too important for this type of maneuver, he believes.

This led to a desynchronization of the pitch controls - which determine the attitude angle - "due to opposing forces": "The captain held the pitch control slightly nose down while the co-pilot applied several times more marked nose-up actions."

Once stabilized, the crew "analyzes the situation, without having perceived the antagonistic actions on the controls", adds the BEA.

Asked by AFP, Air France said it "continues to cooperate fully with the investigation".

The company "recalls that the go-around procedure is defined by aircraft manufacturers and Air France as a normal procedure, which is in line with safety".

“Crews are trained and regularly practiced in these procedures practiced by all airlines”, she adds, recalling “that the safety of flights, of its customers and of its crews is an absolute imperative”.