The very latest content in internet suggests that Air France was already aware of the faulty speed sensors in its Airbus equipments. Shockingly, they knew about it as early as August 2008 when the fault was reported for the first time.
As believed by experts, the crash of AF447, which was on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris was caused by a faulty speed sensor, a device called Pitot tube. Read more about this device here.
Interestingly, Air France had already begun a process of replacing this speed probes in many of its Airbus equipments, and most interestingly, a work description document for replacing the Pitot tubes in AF447 – the very same flight which crashed – was handed over to ground service personnel at Paris and they were waiting for the arrival of the flight for carrying out this task. Unfortunately, AF447 never arrived. Note that this equipment, which was about to get replaced, caused the plane crash just hours before it was about to get replaced!
In picture above: Document which was handed over to the AF service personnel hours before the crash.
You can actually read a copy of the work document which was handed over to the Air France service personnel here. This is supposed to be a confidential document, and you are not supposed to be a reader!
Eurocockpit.com, which is run by professional pilots, says that there have been 36 incidents of a faulty speed sensor in Airbus A330 and A340 equipments, and 35 of them never caused any accident, and the 36th one caused the air plane to crash, the AF447 that is.
36 incidents...1 crash...225 lives...
ReplyDeleteI wonder why we always wait for enough blood on our hands before doing the right thing?