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.

 

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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.

22 dead in plane crash in Argentine Patagonia

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — A Sol Air Lines plane carrying 22 people crashed and exploded Wednesday in Argentina's southern Patagonia region, killing all on board.

Sol Air Lines said its Flight 5248 carrying three crew members and 19 passengers, including a baby, communicated an emergency while flying from Neuquen near the Andes to Comodoro Rivadavia along the coast of Patagonia. The company confirmed that the wreckage was found about 25 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of the town of Los Menucos, and that local firefighers and police found no one alive.

"Unfortunately there are no survivors. We see burnt remains, everything burned," Ismael Ali, who directs the hospital in the nearest town of Los Menucos, told the Todo Noticias channel.
Sol spokesman Horacio Darre in Buenos Aires said the plane took off normally and that it's impossible to know the cause, which will be determined by accident investigators.

"It's important to clarify that right now there is no information about the cause of the crash, which will be clarified by the relevant authorities," an airline statement stressed.

Sol said it received an emergency communication from the plane at 8:50 p.m. local time, nearly halfway into the flight from Neuquen near the Andes to Comodoro Rivadavia along the coast of Rio Negro province.

The plane crashed and exploded on the rural property of a man who drove into the town of about 4,000 people to alert authorities. Los Menucos Mayor Mabel Yahuar said they would make the town's gymnasium available to support investigators and family members.