An investigatory article in this month’s Vanity Fair has revealed that two senior pilots out of three pilots who were flying the Air France plane which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 were asleep until moments before the plane hit a tropical storm.
The Air France 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean five years ago, killing everyone on board including three Irish doctors. The plane had taken off from Rio de Janiero in Brazil and was en route to Paris.
The magazine states that the inexperienced Pierre-Cedric Bonin was left at the helm while Captain Marc Dubois slept. David Robert was the other pilot on board the aircraft at the time.
Irish doctors Jane Deasy (27) from Dublin, Eithne Walls (28) from Down and Aisling Butler (26) from Tipperary were among the 228 victims.
According to Vanity Fair, the pilots can be heard saying “F**k! We’re dead!” on the black box recording seconds before the plane hit the water. The accident occurred four hours and 15 minutes into the flight.
The black box recorder was only recovered two years after the crash due to the rapid formation of ice crystals which clogged the plane’s airspeed detectors.
It is claimed that Captain Dubois had only received an hour’s sleep the night before and returned to the cockpit almost two minutes after the plane reverted back to pilot control having been set to autopilot.
Instead, the junior pilot at the controls reportedly failed to lower the nose of the plane in order to deal with the fact that the plane had stalled in the air and instead raised it.
“If the captain had stayed in position through the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone, it would have delayed his sleep by no more than 15 minutes and, because of his experience, maybe the story would have ended differently,” said lead investigator Alain Bouillard in the article.
“I do not believe it was fatigue that caused him to leave (the cockpit). It was more like customary behaviour, part of the piloting culture within Air France.
“And his leaving was not against the rules. Still, it is surprising. If you are responsible for the outcome, you do not go on vacation during the main event.”
