Nearly two years after the tragic crash of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic Ocean that killed all 216 passengers and 12 aircrew aboard, France’s Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety) released its findings after a thorough investigation into what caused the crash.

After a little over two hours into the flight, the plane’s speed indicators experienced a failure, forcing the pilots to shut off auto-pilot and take manual control over the plane. The pilots then increased the angle of the climb, and that’s where the situation began to take a fatal turn.

After the speed sensors failed, the pilots responded by nosing the plane higher, prompting a stall warning “twice in a row”. To correct this, the pilots increased the plane’s climb, moving up from 35,000 feet to an altitude of 37,500 feet. The stall warning continued a third time, and the pilots responded by further increasing the altitude to 38,000 feet. At this point the plane completely stalled, falling at a rate of 10,000 feet a minute.

The plane’s nose was stalled in an upwards position and the crew made desperate attempts to level the plane out of the stall, pitching left and right as the stall alarms continued to sound. The engine had full power throughout the ordeal, but the pilot was unable to find the right angle and thrust required to regain lift, and the plane fell into the Atlantic Ocean at a rate of about 123 miles per hour, killing everyone onboard.

According to Bloomberg’s report, the plane’s pilot never took control once the plane’s auto-pilot was disengaged. The younger of the two co-pilots, age 32, had full control once the auto-pilot had disengaged.

“What we’re publishing today are technical observations, including actions by the crew, which don’t explain the accident,” BEA chief Jean-Paul Troadec told reporters. “Understanding this chain of events and the reasons behind the crew’s actions is a complex task that is just beginning.”

Air France Flight 447: Pilots at Fault in Crash? is a post from: The Inquisitr

A woman who missed Air France flight 447 has been killed in a car crash.

Johanna Ganthaler and her husband had been on holiday in Brazil and arrived late at Rio de Janeiro airport, missing their flight back to France, the very same Air France flight 447 that crashed into the Atlantic just hours later. Ganthaler and her husband, from the Bolzano-Bozen province in Italy, managed to get another flight back to France that same day.

Recently, Johanna Ganthaler was killed in a car crash in Austria when her car veered across a road in Kufstein and into the path of an onconing truck. Her husband who was in the car with her escaped with serious injuries.

A lot of people believe that life balances itself out over time – that the higher the good times in life, the lower the lows are. That would appear to be true in this case.

[Source: TimesOnline]

Woman who Missed Air France Flight 447 Killed In Car Crash is a post from: The Inquisitr

French government agents working out of Brazil have confirmed that 2 of the passengers who died on the crashed Air France flight 447 jet were linked to Islamic terrorist groups.

Immediately after it was confirmed that the Air France jet crashed, agents with France’s DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), the French equivalent of the CIA, were sent to Brazil. The agents studied the passenger manifest for the downed aircraft and discovered the names of two of the passengers also appeared on highly classified agency documents that listed the names of radical Muslims believed to be a threat to the French Republic.

The link is said to be “highly Significant” because France has recieved a number of terrorist threats from Islamic groups over the past months since sending troops to Afghanistan. French authorities are very concerned about ‘Airborn Attacks,’ although they were not specific about the nature of the threats received.

All evidence in the crash of Air France flight 447 so far has pointed to a massive equipment failure aboard the plane, but until further investigation is done, authorities have not ruled out a possible terrorist attack.

However, these new developments are certainly making terrorism look like more of a possibility.

Two Passengers on Crashed Air France Plane Linked to Islamic Terrorist Groups is a post from: The Inquisitr

Image: BBC

There’s a bit of Google News confusion right now surrounding the loss of young Irish doctor and Riverdance alum Eithne Walls on Flight 447. Information has been difficult to locate due to a widespread misspelling of her name as “Eithne Wallis.”

Walls, 28, hailed from Co. Down. During her six years in medical school at Trinity, she danced part-time with the Riverdance troupe. Eithne was returning from a two-week break in Rio de Janeiro with two fellow doctors (Aisling Butler of Roscrea, Co. Tipperary and Jane Deasy of Dublin) on the ill-fated flight.

You can read a statment from Eithne’s family on the BBC’s website.

Confirmed: Riverdancer Eithne Walls was on Flight 447 is a post from: The Inquisitr