The pilots of Air France flight AF011 from New York to Paris, which was carrying 192 passengers and crew, were just 1,000 feet from the ground on their final approach to Charles de Gaulle airport when they encountered technical difficulties and had to abandon the landing.
The captain and co-pilot can be heard wrestling with the Boeing 777’s controls during the incident, while emergency alarms can be heard in the cockpit footage.
Investigators now believe the problem was caused by the two pilots inadvertently pulling their joysticks in opposite directions at the same time, resulting in a “severe event,” which means it may have resulted in an accident.
“The aeroplane is very much going nuts,” one pilot remarked as he alerted air traffic control to the problem on board the transatlantic trip.
“I saw it sway to the left on the radar“
the controller replied
The two pilots “simultaneously made inputs on the controls” during a go-around for a second attempt, according to a preliminary study released Wednesday by France’s BEA air accident investigation agency.
“The captain held the control column slightly nose-down while the co-pilot made multiple, more pronounced, nose-up inputs,” according to the report.
“Our crew is trained and frequently rehearses procedures that are practised by all airlines,” an Air France spokesman said.
To enhance coordination, the Boeing 777 has control columns that move in sync with one another.
According to experts, only one pilot should be actively flying at any given moment.
When opposing forces on the two columns exceed a particular threshold, they are said to be “desynchronized.”
The pilots examined the situation after the landing fear, but did not detect that they had provided inconsistent inputs or that the columns had become disconnected, according to the BEA.
According to FlightRadar24, the plane landed successfully from New York on the second try and resumed operation around two weeks later.
Stay tuned and updated with Aviationa2z.