Latest update: 02/06/2011

- AF 447 crash - Brazil - France - plane crash

Two years on, the truth about the doomed AF447 flight

Turbulence, faulty instrument readings and a stalled engine. That could be the deadly combination of factors that caused Air France Flight 447 to crash en route from Brazil to Paris in June 2009. All 228 passengers and crew on board were killed. This new information comes from the black boxes of the plane's wreckage, recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic earlier this month.

FOCUS

23/05/2012 - CANADA

Students in Quebec march against tuition fee hike

Student protests in the Canadian province Quebec are into their fourth month. Hundreds were arrested at marches to mark 100 days since the protests began. Students are demonstrating against an 80 percent rise in tuition fees in Quebec, the Canadian province that has until now enjoyed the country's lowest rates for higher education.

23/05/2012 - EGYPT

Egyptians head to the polls

Egyptians go to the polls in the country's first truly contested presidential election on Wednesday. With an array of candidates to choose from, voters will decide who's the best man to lead them through the last phase of the country's troubled democratic transition that began with Egypt's revolution in January last year. Cairo correspondents Kathryn Stapley and Sonia Dridi talked to some of the activists whose protests in Tahrir Square changed the course of Egypt's history.

22/05/2012 - EGYPT

A troubling time for Egypt's Coptic Christians

Egyptians go to the polls tomorrow to vote for a new president for the first time since Hosni Mubarak was ousted during the revolution last year. Two of the front-runners in the presidential race with a realistic chance of winning are devout Islamists, which is troubling for Egypt's Coptic Christians. They are Egypt's largest religious minority and many of them don't think any of the candidates are capable of protecting them from the religious violence that has been steadily increasing.

22/05/2012 - WEST BANK

'The Battle of the Empty Stomachs'

Palestinians nicknamed it "the battle of the empty stomachs". For weeks, 1,600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails refused food and drink in what became the longest ever mass hunger strike. Israel finally capitulated and a deal was reached, allowing those in isolation back onto the general wards, and visas for those family members wishing to visit from Gaza. In exchange, prisoners agreed not to carry out "security activities" such as recruiting for terrorist missions.

21/05/2012 - SERBIA

Serbia's new president - nationalist or not?

Serbia has elected a new president - and it's not the one that most people were expecting. Tomislav Nikolic has unseated Boris Tadic, the man in power since 2004. Observers are worried about the new head of state, who used to be part of the ultra-nationalist Radical Party. He once said he would prefer to be allied with Russia than join the EU, but he has since toned down the rhetoric, saying he will take Serbia to Europe after all.

Comments (14)

AF 447 - a casualty of Man vs Machine?

by Anonyme - 09/06/2011 - 11:32

It's pitch black. No Visibility. Looking outside will tell you nothing. You have severe turbulence. Your "foolproof" computerised instuments seem to have gone haywire. Some readings are clearly impossible. Is this a computer failure? Which readings do you believe? Any? None? A stall warning sounds (false - but you don't know that), then another (this one isn't false - but you don't know that either). So many alarms and warnings. So much more happening than could be written here. Which flight mode is the computer operating in? What can you believe? If you know which instruments to trust you can work out what is happening, but if you feel that you can't trust the readings then you may as well be flying blindfolded. It's easy to criticise and cry "pilot error", but I wonder what percentage of pilots could have correctly identified and recovered the stall?

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Look out the window

by Anonyme - 06/06/2011 - 16:39

It is hard to believe that the pilots did not after 3+minutes of free fall;
1/ Look out the window
2/ Notice that the sound of the aircraft was some how not normal
3/ Look at position reference sytems ie are we moving forward?
4/ Atleast try another option rather than pulling up on the stick
5/ Get the captain on deck sooner
This was a massive human failure.

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Tragic Human error event

by Anonyme - 03/06/2011 - 14:27

Lack of experience. Poor flight training. Inadequate supervision.

I think all commercial pilots should be aerobatics endorsed so they have a clue as to what they should be doing in these situations

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check your sources

by Anonyme - 03/06/2011 - 13:58

Aircraft engines don't generally stall, it's the wings that do.

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If it wasn't so tragic it would be funny

by Anonyme - 03/06/2011 - 04:28

Stalled engine? Pah! Get someone who knows something (anything) about aviation to write these things. Aerodynamic stall, dummy.

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Crash

by Anonyme - 02/06/2011 - 18:01

Is there something that the BEA are not telling us?

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Flight Data Recorder

by Anonyme - 02/06/2011 - 04:31

If anyone knows whether FDR data on pitch re. A330-200, is captured directly from sensors on the sidestick or from sensors on the control surfaces - please advise.

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Stalled engine?

by Anonyme - 02/06/2011 - 03:32

An aerodynamic stall, which occurred on this flight, has nothing whatsoever to do with the engines.

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reporter has no pants.

by Anonyme - 02/06/2011 - 02:13

A 'stall' has nothing to do with the engine.

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what

by Anonyme - 02/06/2011 - 01:32

Really??? Do you even know what you are talking about?

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af 447

by Anonyme - 02/06/2011 - 00:54

doesn't anyone edit this? READ the BEA report--the engines operated perfectly til the plane hit the water. The AIRCRAFT entered an aerodynamic stall-there was no engine failure.

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Stalled engine

by Anonyme - 02/06/2011 - 00:14

Not true. All engines were responding to commands until the end of the recordings.

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skewed views

by Anonyme - 01/06/2011 - 23:51

You must be joking!! It is not just turbulence and faulty engine readings my friend. If that is all it takes everyday flights will be dropping out of the sky. Truth is the problem with human (pilot) component. Did anyone think why we did not get black boxes out until the judge was about to order involuntary manslaughter on air france?? Wht are we trying to coverup here?

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Factual errors

by Anonyme - 01/06/2011 - 20:57

There was no "stalled engine" on flight 447. The stall was an aerodynamic stall, the absence of lift from the wings. Both engines were operating without problems.

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