French BEA have released there final report into the serious incident that occurred on AF471 a Boeing 777-200 flying from Caracas to Paris-Charles de Gaulle on Nov 16th 2011. The Commander was PF, Co-pilot was PNF a relief pilot was seated on the observers seat.
Basically a Summary;
- Aircraft was operating in CAT III conditions on ILS approach to runway 08R at LFPG in LVP.
- AF471 at 136kts angled at 1 degree nose up, descended through 320ft when the Master Caution indicated that the flight mode had changed from LAND 3 to LAND 2.
- Relief pilot calls out ''Alarm'' the PNF calls out ''go-around'', the PF responds by applying full power to initiate the go-around, which disconnected the Auto-Throttle.
- Nose-up pitch command on the control yoke is recorded however insufficient enough to disconnect the Autopilot.
- The aircraft began to accelerate the attitude changes from +1.15 degrees to -0.5 degrees.
- PF orders flaps to 20, pitch decreases further to 2 degrees nose down.
- Relief pilot calls out ''Pitch!'' - 10 seconds after the G/A, both crew pull on the yoke and Autopilot disconnects, aircraft pitches sharply resulting in +1.84G's vertical acceleration. Altitude changes from 2 degrees nose down to 7 degrees nose up - Subsequently reducing to 4 degrees nose up.
- The speed is now 169kts, the Relief pilot again calls out ''Pitch!''.
- The crew apply nose up input on the control yoke, the aircraft reaches its lowest point of 63 feet at 180kts, the nose then rises to 11 degrees nose up in 2 seconds, subsequently 19 degrees nose up and the aircraft climbs to safety.
- Climbing through 870 feet the gear is retracted and the crew position the aircraft for a second approach, followed by a safe landing.
The BEA has found the probable cause was - ''inadequate monitoring of flight parameters by the flight crew.''
Whilst there were 3 contributing factors;
- 1. Partial execution of the go-around procedure.
- 2. Inadequate management of the automatic systems during execution.
- 3. The conflict of plans of action between respecting the operators instruction and continuing the landing, which seemed to be safely possible according to the manufacturer.
Report here -
http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2011/f-pp...p111116.en.pdf
My questions are what the hell is going on in Air France training programs and safety classes?? I've read numerous reports now AF6 (2010), AF447 (2009), AF1620 (2012), AF2184 (2012), AF3093 (2012).
I've never seen such serious breaches of basic safety and so many in the space of 5 years (And there are MANY incidents!) with such a big carrier.
If this was some African carrier they wouldn't be flying in Europe. What's so different about AF?
