An air crash would have been narrowly avoided Tuesday morning at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle. A Boeing from New York had to go around just before landing. The exchanges between the control tower and the pilot were broadcast on social networks.
During the final approach phase, around 10 a.m., the pilots of the Air France Boeing 777-300 noticed that the plane was no longer responding to the controls and was deviating to the left. The plane was at 1200 feet, about 370 meters in height when the pilots experienced “flight control instability”.
In an audio recording broadcast on social networks, we hear the exchanges between the pilots of flight AF011 and the control tower: “We’ve overshot, 4,000 feet, we’ll hold them, we’ll call you back“, explains a pilot. Adding, a few seconds later: “a flight control problem, the plane did just about anything“.
According Air LiveAir France confirmed yesterday “that the crew of flight AF011 on April 4, 2022 between New York JFK and Paris-CDG interrupted their landing sequence and performed a go-around following a technical incident on approach. The crew mastered the situation and landed the aircraft normally after a second approach”. The go-around is a normal procedure and the crews are trained in this procedure according to the specialized site.
“We saw the weather and we knew it was raining, we saw the heavy cloud cover. When the plane descended, we entered the clouds, it was starting to move. I first put this on the account of the weather. Then we heard shouting in the cabin. I shouted myself, I was surprised by these air holes. It was really a sensation of free fall, of unexpected movement of the plane”says a passenger who thinks “naturally stressed on the plane” at France 3 Paris Ile-de-France.
After the first landing attempt, the plane made several circles above the airport before starting a second approach.
“They asked us to really turn off all our electronic devices, not even to leave them on airplane mode. It was the first time I heard that. But the second landing went smoothly”continues the passenger.
They did not immediately learn of the tragedy they missed: “I think it’s not worse because we would have panicked a little more if we had known all the messages between the control tower and the pilots”he relativizes.
In a press release, the BEA, the Civil Aviation Safety Investigation and Analysis Bureau, speaks “d’incident grave” and announced to open a “safety investigation”. The incident was classified as level 2.
In international civil aviation nomenclature, a serious incident is a “incident the circumstances of which indicate that there has been a high probability of an accident“.
The classification of the incident as “serious” is due in particular to the fact that it took place “in the approach phase, where there is the most risk“, with the take-off phase, according to a source close to the BEA.
This type of survey is “regularly” opened by the BEA, according to this source, specifying that the incident in question did not cause any injuries.
“The crew landed the aircraft normally after a second approach“said Air-France, which apologized to the passengers of the flight for”the discomfort that may have been felt by customers“.
The Boeing was immobilized on the ground and the two black boxes will be analyzed. The investigation will be carried out with the American counterpart of the BEA, to determine the reasons for the incident.
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