crew rest
"With 2 F/O's onboard what would the norm have been for crew resting, i.e. do AF use cruise Pilots, Commander at rest?"
Asked this very question of a 777 captain yesterday...at his carrier on a flight of this duration with 3 pilots there would be 3 blocks of rest...with the Captain taking the middle block. I asked about how long would that be into the flight and he said around 3-3.5 hours. I do not have any specific knowledge on what AF procedures are and if any of the 3 cockpit crewmembers were out of the cockpit during the incident. However, during our discussion it was felt that after exiting Brazilian Radar and going deep transoceanic that it 'could' be a 'possible' time for that rest.