Air France Flight 447
F-GZCP, the aircraft involved in the accident, shown here at Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2007
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1 June 2009 |
| Summary | Entered high altitude stall, impacted ocean |
| Site |
Atlantic Ocean near waypoint TASIL 3°03′57″N 30°33′42″W / 3.06583°N 30.56167°WCoordinates: 3°03′57″N 30°33′42″W / 3.06583°N 30.56167°W |
| Passengers | 216 |
| Crew | 12 |
| Fatalities | 228 (all) |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft type | Airbus A330-203 |
| Operator | Air France |
| Registration | F-GZCP |
| Flight origin | Rio de Janeiro–Galeão Airport |
| Destination | Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport |
Air France Flight 447 (AF447/AFR447) was a scheduled passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France, which crashed on 1 June 2009. The Airbus A330, operated by Air France, entered an aerodynamic stall from which it did not recover and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at 02:14 UTC, killing all 228 passengers, aircrew and cabin crew aboard the aircraft.
The Brazilian Navy removed the first major wreckage and two bodies from the sea within five days of the accident, but the initial investigation by France's Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA) was hampered because the aircraft's black boxes were not recovered from the ocean floor until May 2011, nearly two years later.
The BEA's final report, released at a news conference on 5 July 2012, concluded that the aircraft crashed after temporary inconsistencies between the airspeed measurements – likely due to the aircraft's pitot tubes being obstructed by ice crystals – caused the autopilot to disconnect, after which the crew reacted incorrectly and ultimately caused the aircraft to enter an aerodynamic stall from which it did not recover. The accident was the deadliest in the history of Air France. It was also the Airbus A330's second and deadliest accident, and its first in commercial passenger service.
The aircraft departed from Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport on 31 May 2009 at 19:29 local time (22:29 UTC), with a scheduled arrival at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport at 09:03 UTC the following day, after an estimated flight time of 10:34. The last voice contact with the aircraft was at 01:35 UTC, 3 hours and 6 minutes after the 22:29 UTC departure, when it reported that it had passed waypoint INTOL (1°21′39″S 32°49′53″W / 1.36083°S 32.83139°W), located 565 km (351 mi) off Natal, on Brazil's north-eastern coast. The aircraft left Brazilian Atlantic radar surveillance at 01:49 UTC.
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Wikipedia