Spooky

More on that Air France A330 crash in 2009 from Reuters:

France’s BEA crash investigation agency said in a detailed chronology of the crash that commands from the controls of the 32-year-old junior pilot on board had pulled the nose up as the aircraft became unstable and generated an audible stall warning. Aviation industry sources told Reuters that this action went against the normal procedures which call for the nose to be lowered…

Air France and its main pilots union insisted faulty speed probes were the root cause. In a passage likely to attract particular scrutiny, the BEA said the pilot “maintained” the nose-up command despite fresh stall warnings 46 seconds into the four-minute emergency. “The inputs made by the pilot flying were mainly nose-up,” the report added.

The Airbus jet climbed 3,000 feet to 38,000 feet despite the crew having decided earlier against a climb, and then began a dramatic descent, with the youngest pilot handing control to the second most senior pilot a minute before impact. The captain returned after “several attempts” to call him back to the cockpit but was not at the controls in the final moments

It looks like there was a stall that was not handled correctly. The pitot tubes have not yet been found, so it may be a while before there is a definitive finding in the investigation.

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