NewsFinal moments of Air France Flight 447: Pilots' battle revealed

Final moments of Air France Flight 447: Pilots' battle revealed

What do pilots feel when they realize their plane is about to crash and there's nothing they can do to prevent it? This daunting question is given perspective through the chilling last conversation captured by the black boxes from the Air France flight that tragically plunged into the Atlantic, claiming the lives of 228 people, among them 12 crew members and 216 passengers.

Fragments of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic waters in 2009. That was the last conversation of the pilots.
Fragments of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic waters in 2009. That was the last conversation of the pilots.
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5:41 AM EDT, April 20, 2024

The black boxes recorded a shocking dialogue between Captain Marc Dubois and his co-pilots, David Robert and Pierre-Cédric Bonin. They knew the Airbus A330 they were piloting was doomed to meet the ocean imminently.

On June 1, 2009, the Air France flight departed from Rio de Janeiro heading for Paris. The plane, carrying 229 individuals including 216 passengers and 12 crew members, never arrived at its destination. The pilots were painfully cognizant that they were powerless to avert the looming catastrophe. Their final words, filled with fear, revealed their dread of the inevitable.

A pilot's voice cuts the air in the black box recording, saying they've lost airspeed. This is followed by an anxious reply from another who admits not knowing what's happening. Then, we hear Bonin urging, "Come on, pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up!"

"F**k, we're going to crash! It's not true! But what's happening?" Robert exclaimed in horror.

The clarity of who spoke next fades, but the understanding of their fate does not. —"F**k, we're dead," is audibly resigned.

What precipitated the tragedy of Air France Flight 447? According to the French Aviation Safety Agency's report, the crash resulted from a pilot error compounded by malfunctioning speed indicators. The crew did not correctly respond to false readings from the Pitot tubes' airspeed sensors, which had frozen over.

The pilots mishandled the situation when alerts indicated the aircraft was losing lift. The airplane, weighing 225 tons (originally cited as 205 tons), descended for 4 minutes before finally crashing into the ocean, leaving behind only wreckage and the harrowing last words of its pilots. In 2023, a Paris court exonerated Air France and Airbus of involuntary manslaughter charges relating to the casualties onboard.

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