On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France crashed
into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board. It remains the worst crash in Air
France's history. It took two years to find the flight's wreckage and the majority of
the bodies in a mountain range under the ocean. Remote-controlled submarines were used to
traverse nearly 4,000 square miles of ocean floor to do so. Due to cold temperatures and
high water pressure, the bodies that were found were relatively well preserved, although
some were damaged as they were lifted from the sea.
As reported by The Independent, the flight carried 216 passengers and 12 crew members
of 32 different nationalities. Per HuffPost, a coding system had to be created in order
to catalog the injuries of the victims, which were understandably devastating. The flight
recorder was later discovered in 2011 and found that no announcement was made to passengers
regarding the imminent crash.
"The recently recovered black box recorders indicate the emergency on the AirBus A330
began two and half hours into the flight from Rio de Janeiro.”
Like most accidents, the crash of Air France Flight 447 could have possibly been averted.
The three pilots on board, however, reportedly made grievous mistakes during a period of
bad weather that led to everyone's death. According to The Independent, when traces
of wreckage began to show up in the South Atlantic, officials were at a loss as to what
could have happened. Nothing unusual occurred during takeoff, and by all accounts, the flight
proceeded as normal for several hours. Then suddenly, the plane disappeared from the radar
without a trace. At least 12 other flights from Brazil to Europe traveled around the
same time as Air France 447. None reported poor weather conditions, leading experts to
believe the main cause of the crash must have been technical issues.
However, experts cautioned that the weather can inexplicably change; thus one plane on
the same route could experience conditions different from the others. It wasn't until
the flight recorder was discovered that it was confirmed that the plane found itself
in adverse weather conditions, with the appearance of St. Elmo's fire startling one of the pilots,
per The Atlantic. Ultimately, though, this was not the cause of the crash that killed
all on board.
The passengers came from diverse backgrounds and were in Brazil for a variety of different
reasons. 19 of the victims were coworkers who had won a trip to Brazil for their outstanding
sales stats. There were three Irish doctors who had come on vacation, and there was an
11-year-old schoolboy who was returning to the UK after visiting family.
Perhaps the worst part is knowing that the crash could have been prevented. According
to ABC News, experts believed that the pilots were not adequately trained for the emergency
situation they found themselves in. That's why things went downhill and disaster occurred,
seemingly out of nowhere.
Air France 447 was a little over three hours into its flight when the trouble began. According
to the BBC, when the storm hit, it caused the air-speed sensors to freeze. This led
the autopilot to disconnect. In addition, two out of three pilots, including the captain,
were asleep moments before this issue occurred.
What should have been done was the nose of the plane should have been pointed downward
to stabilize it. However, the opposite occurred. The pilots misinterpreted what was happening
and pointed the nose up. This led to the plane ramming into the sea at a speed of 11,000
feet per minute. Simply put, the pilots failed to react appropriately to the situation in
multiple ways. This was possibly due to shock, panic, and inexperience, especially as the
junior pilot was at the controls.
If the captain had gone to sleep later than he did, there's a strong possibility that
things would have been different, as he would have been available to help during the emergency.
Basically, this is a crash that should have never happened. But it did, and it only took
fewer than four minutes for the plane to descend into the ocean. One of the last things that
could be heard on the voice recorder is one of the pilots saying, "...we're dead."
In 2021, 12 years after the crash, a Paris court ruled that Air France and AirBus, the
plane's manufacturer, should stand trial for the involuntary manslaughter of the 228 people
killed on the ill-fated flight.