Posted Apr 6, 2022, 11:34 AMUpdated on Apr 6, 2022 at 12:09 PM
Big heat stroke, this Tuesday morning, in the cockpit of Air France flight AF11 New York-CDG. The Boeing 777 pilots had to deal with a serious incident on final approach to Paris-CDG airport. The affair could have ended very badly without the coolness of the crew. For a still unknown reason, the aircraft seems to have partially escaped the control of the pilots, the flight controls no longer reacting normally. After a go-around, they nevertheless managed to land the aircraft without incident.
The Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) indicated this morning that it had opened a security investigation to determine the causes of this incident, qualified as serious. The analysis of the flight recorders is in progress. The BEA press release mentions “instability of flight controls on final, go-around, harshness of controls and trajectory oscillations”.
Online registration
A recording of the conversations between the pilots and the control tower is nevertheless already broadcast on social networks, which gives an idea of the seriousness of the incident. One of the pilots has in fact left open the radio channel on a frequency whose emissions can be picked up and recorded by amateur radio stations.
Shortly after being cleared by the Roissy-CDG control tower to land on runway 26, an alarm was heard in the cockpit, while one of the pilots exclaimed: “Stop, stop”! As the air traffic controller tries to reestablish contact, one of the pilots briefly replies “I’ll call you back”, against a background of alarm.
A few seconds later, the crew announced that they had overshot, to maintain an altitude of 4,000 feet (1,219 meters). “No problem, answers the controller, who interrupted the departures. Maintain 4,000 feet”. One of the pilots, probably the captain, then provides more details on the incident. “It’s good, we went around, a problem with the flight controls, the plane did almost anything,” he says. We are ready to reach the final with radar guidance, the time to manage the situation a bit… If you can give me a very long tailwind”.
“No worries, repeats the air traffic controller. I saw on the radar that it was going to the left. Are you going back to the left? The crew finally opted for another runway (27 right), where they would land without any further problems, using the ILS instrument landing procedure, which is required in the event of an avionics malfunction.
Air France confirms
In response, Air France confirms the incident, explaining that it understands and regrets “the discomfort that may have been felt by customers”. “Crews are trained and regularly practiced in these procedures practiced by all airlines in order to guarantee the safety of flights and passengers, which are absolute imperatives for Air France. “, adds the group.
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