Experts at work to shed light on what happened on board the Air France flight that departed last Sunday from JFK airport in New York and headed to Paris: upon landing, the pilots for "serious technical problems" would have lost the control of the vehicle, with evident panic on board and beyond.
According to what was reconstructed, the Boeing 777-300ER started not responding to commands shortly before descending on the runway: the recording of the conversation between the pilots and the control tower, intercepted by some radio amateurs, reveals the tension of those difficult moments.
"The plane does not respond to commands - says the captain - stop, stop!" On board the flight the alarm then began to sound and panic broke out among the passengers.
The sounds and the excited voice alarm the control tower. "Air France 11?", They ask from the ground. "I'll call you back", says the pilot. Then again from the tower: "Air France stop the approach at 1,500 feet immediately." "Ok we stop at 1,500", they answer from the cabin. But the alarm still sounds, other audible warnings are added. "Here AF11, we go around, wait at 4,000 feet, we will call you back", they say again from the aircraft.
“We went around for flight control problems - explains the pilot in a subsequent conversation with the ground crew -. The plane did not respond, we are ready to resume the descent with the radar indications. Give us time to handle the situation then guide us by providing us with tailwind ”.
The Boeing, on the second attempt, therefore managed to land on the runway of Charles de Gaulle airport.
"Air France confirms that the crew of flight AF011 on April 4, 2022 from New York JFK to Paris-CDG interrupted the landing sequence and performed a go-around due to a technical problem during the approach," said a spokesman for the airline to the Daily Mail. "The crew checked the situation and landed the plane normally after a second approach."
Now Air France has started all internal investigations necessary to understand the nature of the technical problem. And according to a spokesperson for the "Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la sécurité de aviation civile" (Bea), the experts are already analyzing the data of the two black boxes of the aircraft.
(Unioneonline / vl)
