I think it is interesting to revisit the situation the Captain William Hagan on the BA 744 (LGW-NBO) in December 2000, who came onto the flight deck to find an intruder attacking his F/O and the very dangerous stall that the aircraft was in. Another four or five seconds he said, and the aircraft would have been on its back! Again it was at night with no horizon and credit must be given again to that F/O who saved the aircraft without overstressing it. I would say that was a worse predicament for the BA 747-436 than the AF A-330.
Incidentally I flew that 744 to PHX soon after the event with our new CEO, Rod Eddington, on board. My F/O was shocked to find there was still blood spattered on some of the instruments! Eddington told me that he had 'phoned the President of Boeing to congratulate them on building such a strong airplane.
Gentlemen, it is all down to airmanship. Reading the reports in the Press of Air France congratulating the heroic efforts and professionalism of the flight crew on AF 447, makes me think if you are going to tell a lie, you might as well tell a whopper.
In a similar situation on a 747-236, my instinct was not to raise the nose and put the aircraft even closer to coffin corner. The AF pilot(s) allowed the situation to deteriorate where the aircraft had almost no forward speed or momentum. How do you recover from that?
The fact that Air Caraibe pilots demonstrated the appropriate airmanship in two similar scenarios, shows that basic flying skills are lacking at AF. How can you otherwise explain landing an A-340 half way down the runway in a thunderstorm at YYZ and expecting to stop, the heavy landing at CCS, the taxying incident at JFK and even the loss of the Concorde may have been a different result, if BA procedures had been followed as well as maintenance. Maintenance of course, regarding the pitot tubes (changed by Air Caraibe following their upsets) is again a factor in an AF crash.
Air France needs to go through a flight safety audit similar to Korean Airlines, who since that have not suffered a hull loss.
Last edited by Count Niemantznarr; 28th May 2011 at 12:14.