Just watched what I thought was quite an informative/objective/ non sensationalist program about this affair on France 5, in French (funnily enough) at about 5pm local time this evening.
First a disclamer:
1- I do not know if the show I saw is the one talked about above, though Discovery Canada/France 5 was mentioned in the credits.
2- My French is still not 100%, but I understand it pretty well having lived here for 2 years now.
The thrust of the program appeared to be that the crew thought they had a computer glitch, they only knew they were losing fuel just before the engines quit and they were damn good pilots to rescue the situation afterwards. The initial screwy(as they saw it) temp readings on the engine were checked with base and they were told moniter situation, there is no problem. Later fuel imbalance was then regarded with the initial idea of a computer glitch firmly in the forefront of their minds, the reconstruction showed them following procedures & also getting cabin crew to look in the back and see if fuel was venting overboard and only then opening fuel crossfeed. This was then left open for the system to stabilise bearing in mind they were thinking computer glitch, not fuel loss.
The tone of the show was summed up by passengers comments to the question ‘are the crew heros?’, Reply’s along the lines of – ‘Heros no, but regardless of whether they made any mistakes, brilliant pilots who’s flying skills that day saved our lives’.
Incidentally, one thing mentioned was that ‘the only interested party to hold the crew responsible for the incident is Airbus Industry….who have now made changes to their aircraft fuel management software…’
Anyone else also see this program? Preferably with a better command of French than I? - I now want to see the show in English !!