Lagarde begins 1st day as head of IMF

Former finance minister of France Christine Lagarde was elected to the IMF's top job last week.

(CNN) -- Christine Lagarde is set to take over as the head of the International Monetary Fund Tuesday, the first woman to run the influential financial institution.

Lagarde, who was the finance minister of France, takes over at a crucial time for the IMF as the organization is working closely with the European Union and the European Central Bank to provide financial support for troubled European economies.

Lagarde will serve a five-year term as the global financial institution's managing director and chairman, the IMF said.
"I am deeply honored by the trust placed in me by the Executive Board," Lagarde said in a statement last week. She succeeds Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested earlier this year in New York on sexual assault charges.

The only other contender for the job was Mexican Central Bank chief Agustin Carstens, who was supported by Australia, Canada and Mexico.

The IMF said it selected Lagarde, last week, by a consensus vote. Lagarde was also backed by the United Kingdom, Germany and most European powers, as well as some Asian and African nations. The IMF, which is made up of 187 member countries, has traditionally been led by a Western European official.

Some developing nations had pushed to break that tradition, arguing that the IMF should consider candidates from rising economic powers in Asia and South America.

Lagarde, 55, had been French President Nicolas Sarkozy's finance minister since June 2007. She also served as the country's to foreign trade official.

A lawyer by training, Lagarde was a partner at the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie before going into politics. According to her official biography, Lagarde was born in Paris to school teachers and has two children of her own. She was a member of the French national synchronized swimming team and was inducted into the nation's Legion of Honor in 2000.

Air France crash pilots lost vital speed data, say investigators

(CNN) -- Pilots of the Air France flight that crashed in 2009 and plummeted 38,000 feet in just three minutes and 30 seconds, lost vital speed data, France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) said Friday.
The pilots got conflicting air speeds in the minutes leading up to the crash, the interim reports states. The aircraft climbed to 38,000 feet when "the stall warning was triggered and the airplane stalled," the report says.
Aviation experts are asking why the pilots responded to the stall by pulling the nose up instead of pushing it down to recover.

Miles O'Brien, a pilot and aviation analyst, said: "You push down on the wheel to gain air speed, perhaps they (pilots) were getting information that the air speed was too high. Pulling the nose up will exacerbate an aerodynamic stall."

The speed displayed on the left primary flight display were "inconsistent" with those on the integrated standby instrument system (ISIS), the report says.

 

New details on cause of Air France crash

 

 

What caused the Air France crash?

 

 

Map: Air France Flight 447

The aircraft experienced some "rolling" before stalling and then descending rapidly into the ocean. The descent lasted 3 minutes and 30 seconds and the engines remained operational, said the report. It plunged at 10,912 feet (3,300 meters) per minute.

At the time of the descent, the two co-pilots and captain were in the aircraft cockpit.