Thursday 5 July 2012

Mystery solved

Flight 447, an Airbus A330, vanished from radar at high altitude during an Atlantic storm on1st June 2009. All 228 on board were killed. His Imperial and Royal Highness Dom Pedro Luiz de Orléans e Bragança, Prince of Brazil, was aboard Air France flight 447 and died at the age of 26. He was heir presumptive to the Brazilian Crown.

In its report, the French aviation safety authority, BEA, today said faulty sensors and inadequate pilot training caused Air France's Rio-to-Paris flight to crash into the Atlantic. Their final report caps a bitter row between Air France and Airbus.

Chief investigator Alain Bouillard said the two co-pilots - left at the controls while the captain rested - never understood that their plane was in a stall and "were in a situation of near total loss of control" in darkness during the final four minutes before the plane slammed into the ocean 1,500 kilometers off Brazil's coast. Only a well-experienced crew with a clear understanding of the situation would have stabilized the plane in those conditions, Bouillard said.

The report also found that the co-pilots had also lacked instruments to help them identify and manage unusual situations.

Although the final report gives the bereaved some consolation, the Brazilian Monarchists are still mourning a brilliant young man who could have become Brazil's Emperor.














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