Even if the black boxes from Air France flight AF447 are retrieved, the question remains: to what extent was this disaster caused by pilots thinking more like accountants or shareholders than as pilots?
AF447
AF447: A head crash in the cockpit, ice on the outside, and too much freight?
Some gravely serious allegations about the conduct of Air France flight AF447, which crashed in the middle of the Atlantic killing all 228 people on board last June, have been published. Ben Sandilands examines the damning report.
The AF447 disaster: there were known issues
The second interim report on the Air France flight AF447 that killed all 228 people on board has been released. May it serve as a warning for aviation bean counters looking for cost saving in flight maintenance, says Ben Sandilands.
AF447 crash: Air France traps itself with leaked memo
The latest response by Air France management to the June crash of flight AF447 is a joke, says Ben Sandilands: a “strongly worded” memo telling pilots to be “more vigilant” about safety procedures.
US lawyer sues Airbus (and everyone else) over Air France disaster
A US lawyer is suing everyone who made anything that was part of the Air France Airbus flight that crashed into the mid Atlantic in June, reports Ben Sandilands.
AF447 disaster: was the radar really working?
There is one strange but not necessarily consequential omission in the official interim report into the June’s Air France disaster, says Ben Sandilands: nowhere does it confirm that the weather radar was switched on.
First report on AF447 disaster lands
The preliminary report into the AF447 mid-Atlantic crash says the jet didn’t break apart before it hit the sea, writes Ben Sandilands.
Airbus scrutiny required (not for the reasons you think)
The Yemenia Air crash and the Air France disaster have nothing in common (despite their Airbus link), but there are good reasons for continued scrutiny of the modern A330 design involved in the AF447 disaster.
Mapping the AF447 debris
The French accident investigator has released a map of of the wreckage and victims recovered from AF447. It shows the scale of the task still ahead, says Ben Sandilands.
AF447 investigation draws closer to the truth
French investigators say they are getting closer to figuring out just what caused Air France Flight 447 to crash, with suspicion still strong that a computer bug may lie at the heart of the problem.
Airbus attack: Sandilands vs Devine
Miranda Devine turns her attention from urging the lynching of greenies and other social graces for morons to the wicked computer driven giant Airbus un-American monster jet in the SMH today, writes Ben Sandilands.
AF447: Any last words?
The silence that surrounds one item of information in the Air France disaster is notable: what exactly was said between the captain and the operations centre in Paris in the last voice communication?
AF447 crash and the culture of computerised and automated flight systems
The airlines and safety authorities need to ask if the culture of professional piloting is being degraded inadvertently by an automated approach to operating procedures, or unduly influenced by pressure to fly the most direct route available.
AF447: what we know so far
If a reasonable guess is to made about what was happening on AF447 that night, it was that the jet was flying at perhaps the worst possible speed into a storm cell. Ben Sandilands explains.
AF447’s critical tail parts found
The recovery of a large part of the Air France A330-200’s tail from the mid-Atlantic crash site is of critical importance in determining the sequence of events that caused the disaster.
Qantas rules out its own AF447 risk
The Australian airline says it is unaffected by the pitot probe issues that are being implicated in the AF447 Airbus crash in the mid Atlantic, writes Ben Sandilands.
Beyond the black box
Much has been learned about what happened to AF447. That’s thanks to automated status messages relayed by the lost plane via satellite, writes Ben Sandilands, pointing to what will eventually replace black boxes.
AF447: Wrong speed, wrong conditions
Le Monde is reporting that AF447 was flown at the wrong speed through turbulence from the moment problems arose with its flight control systems and until it broke apart in flight, says Ben Sandilands.
What it feels like to go down in a plane crash
In their memoirs, two survivors tell of their trips out of the air — and the repercussions of defeating the odds.
Air France Flight 447: a detailed meteorological analysis
Tim Vasquez tries to isolate the aircraft’s location against high-resolution satellite images from GOES-10 to identify any association with thunderstorm activity.
Bloggers try to make sense of AF447′s fate
While there’s still no clear idea of what happened to AF447, well-informed bloggers — like Crikey’s Plane Talking — are suggesting what might have gone wrong.
Did AF447 break apart mid-flight?
There is informed speculation amongst airline professionals that AF447 broke apart in flight at or near 35,000 feet and fell into the mid Atlantic in two main parts, reveals Ben Sandilands.
