French aviation safety investigators have opened an investigation after an Air France Boeing 777 plane approaching Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport was involved in a “serious incident”, according to the BEA, the Office of Investigations and Analysis for France’s Civil Aviation Security.
In an air traffic control audio recording that French officials say is of the incident, one pilot says that “the plane was kind of out of control”.
The incident happened on Tuesday, April 5, according to the BEA, which reported “flight controls instability at the end of the landing procedure, tight controls and flight path oscillations.”
The BEA did not give the CNN more details on what caused the incident or why it was classified as “serious”, adding that it will wait for the investigation to end. The Office is analyzing flight data from the cockpit voice recorder and black boxes.
An audio recording posted online of the communication between the flight pilot and the control tower was authenticated by the BEA. The recording was edited to isolate the audio from the flight and shared by the private website AirLive, which told CNN who had direct access to Charles de Gaulle’s Air Traffic Control recordings.
“Out of control”
In the BEA recording, an apparently pilot’s voice is heard saying “stop, stop” as an alarm sounds in the cockpit. “I call back, I call back,” the male voice is heard saying to air traffic controllers, who instruct him to “stop the approach immediately.”
The pilot is then heard reporting to controllers the decision to abandon the landing.
“We’ve been walking around with a problem with commands. The plane was kind of out of control,” says the voice. “We are ready to resume final approach with radar guidance. Give us time to manage the situation and then guide us with a tailwind.”
Air France reply
Air France says it “understands and regrets the discomfort felt by passengers”. Spokesperson Mathieu Guillot said the pilots responded appropriately to the situation by making a second landing attempt.
“Air France confirms that the crew of flight AF011 on April 4, 2022 on the flight between New York-JFK and Paris-CDG aborted its landing sequence and had to go around during the approach,” the company says.
“The crew landed the aircraft normally after a second approach. Air France understands and regrets the discomfort felt by passengers.”
A passenger’s report
As the plane approached the airport, there were “two or three sudden jolts”, a passenger told BFMTV, the French affiliate of the CNN. “There were people screaming in the cabin” at the time of the incident, he said.
“Then the plane came back. We circled for 10 minutes above the airport, and the second attempt was very smooth. No problems like the first one”, added the passenger.
Origin in JFK
The nearly seven-hour Air France flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was carried out on a French-registered Boeing 777, according to tracking data from aviation websites FlightAware and FlightRadar24.
As the aircraft was manufactured in the United States, an official investigation into the incident would involve the participation of the US National Transportation Safety Board.
The council has appointed an official to participate in the French-led investigation, the body’s spokesman Peter Knudson told CNN. The US Federal Aviation Administration also declined to comment on the incident.
It is unclear how many people were on board the flight when the incident occurred.
Source: CNN Brasil
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