Discover (and save!) The aircraft levels off at 30 feet (9.1m). The overflight of the airfield at the Aerodrome was to take place at alpha-max, the lowest speed at which a craft could fly without stalling. 12:45:15 - the aircraft, now at 90 feet (27m), begins a deviation to the right (maximum bank angle: 30) to line up with the grass strip 34R. Air France didn't inform the crew of this critical change (yet the crew voices are recorded on black boxes, and they use imperial units). Help Center Contributor Zone Polls. Self: Air Crash Investigation. your own Pins on Pinterest What a cheek for trees to grow right where some stupid French pilot want's to crash his aircraft and KILL some of his passengers? It's kind of hard to prove that pilots and conditions WOULD have messed up if they had truly been in control of all flights all these years. [2], First Officer Pierre Mazires, 45, had been flying with the airline since 1969 and had been a training captain for six years. Captain Asseline, and four other Air France employees are convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Five individuals, including the captain and first officer, were later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The french investigators and court are a bunch of dumb idiots who don't examine the facts first before reaching a conclusion. Not only was he told to go there, he was told the wrong runway to overfly. This more than anything caused the crash. [2] Additionally, the captain was expecting from the flight plan to do the pass over runway 02 (3,281 feet (1,000m) long, paved) and was preparing for that alignment. This alone would give me as a pilot cause to do a go around. Its systems would not allow for mistakes. 12:45:30 - nose-up attitude increases to 7. According to French law, Asseline was required to submit himself to the prison system before his case could be taken up by the Court of Cassation. Have you ever feared losing your job? He knowingly took the passengers and aircraft into a dangerous situation, purposefully disabled some of the safeties (i.e. In order to accomplish the desk-pilots orders, the pilots valuable time was spent jiggering the preparations for the overflight, not allowing him to evaluate strategic details like why fly a plane at 30 feet if there are 100-foot trees at the end? On June 26, 1988, a very special Airbus A320 left Basel-Mulhouse Airport in Habsheim, France. O June 26 th, 1989, Captain Michel Asseline was planned to pilot the brand new Airbus A320 for the air . His choice to put the safety of the passengers at risk was and is the defining point I wish to make. Aircraft painted in beautiful and original liveries, Airport Overviews Community. From higher up, the forest at the end of 34R had looked like a different type of grass. Some faceless desk-pilot added on a trip to a tiny airfield on the day of the flight but did not bother to do the hard work of preparing the particulars necessary to do so. Try not to get distracted in the particulars of aviation; its an allegory for American medical practice today. I, personally, do not agree with the conclusions reached in this aircraft accident report. [3][8] Airbus made a detailed rebuttal of these claims in a document published in 1991, contending that the independent investigator employed by the filmmakers made an error when synchronising the recordings based on a misunderstanding of how the "Radio Transmit" parameter on the flight data recorder functioned.[9]. Heres a story about me and you. Overflight at this altitude made the demonstration to the crowd even more awe-inspiring. [2] Mazires had 10,853 hours of flight time. Why be a sucker? He gave the best he could to make it fly. He didnt familiarize himself with the airfield as he should have and he must take responsibility for flying at only 30 feet instead of 100ft. Cookie Notice Prison of Precision (Part 2) by Stephen Vaughn MD, Ph. I thing, there was no evidence, that captain Asseline made a fault before crash of plane. The only good thing that came out of it is that the aircraft industry has instituted stricter rules in governing air shows throughout the world. Guilty. His job was to find its limitations, but one slipped past him, and Airbus and all the designers and engineers. That pilot should walk free. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panintern Flight_112, https://www.welt.de/print/wams/vermisch Licht.html, http://www.feuerwehr-krummesse.de/einsa kensee.php, http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2009/f-cp090 .01.en.pdf, http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/14/us/ai hance.html, http://www.avmed.in/2011/02/from-convic le-reborn/, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/fir -1.2605682, https://norj.ca/2014/04/pilots-fired-af ff-course/. Some seconds later the aircraft touched the tops of the trees behind the runway and crashed into a forest. Due to the many demands of redirection and reconfiguration, the craft flew above Runway 34R at 30 feet, not the usual 100 feet which is standard for low-altitude demonstration overflight. ), You can read more about this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_296. COLMAR, France (AP) _ The pilot of an Airbus A320 jetliner that crashed during a 1988 air show, killing three passengers while hundreds watched, was sentenced to six months in prison Friday. Because the aircraft's altitude had fallen below 100ft, the plane's computer may have been programmed to believe it was landing and therefore prevent any drastic manoeuvres from either pilot. It may have. He was leader of the French air force's aerobatics team and, later, a Boeing 747 Flight Captain with Air France. *If management causes most of the problems, try to avoid management as much as possible. In order to accomplish the desk-pilots orders, the pilots valuable time was spent jiggering the preparations for the overflight, not allowing him to evaluate strategic details like why fly a plane at 30 feet if there are 100-foot trees at the end? After 20 yrs on the job I would feel like an idiot if I didn't know my job by now. Born Today Most Popular Celebs Most Popular Celebs Celebrity News. Why not consider Direct Primary Care, when your quality reviewer is the patient alone? When the evacuation continued, the flight attendant stayed at the door, helping passengers, until she began suffering from smoke inhalation. I'm not sure about that detail), and crashed itself. airfrance took 4secs to respond too. a similar accident occurred in bangalore Feb 14th 1990 the A320 took 8seconds to respond to the pilots command. Everyone thought it was a no-brainer for the A320 to wow this crowd. It is a fact of life that no human is perfect, and every one will make errors at some stage. Where are pilots who make mistakes? he claims to have done this before in the recording, but does not mention that it was at 20,000 feet with 40% thrust rather than 100 feet with 5% thrust. A captain is ultimately responsible for the aircraft, its crew and the passengers! Its about commercial aviation, and Ive tried to include all the relevant facts for you to draw conclusions. Asseline fcuked up big time and killed 3 people. The flight plan originally filed did not include the flyover of the Habsheim Air Show, which was added on the morning of the flight. You have to take time to do so! After the first pass, the first officer would then apply the takeoff/go-around switch (TOGA) power and climb steeply before turning back for the second pass. He should never have put it into that situation. There was no reply and the thick black smoke made a visual check impossible, so she exited the fuselage. If management causes most of the problems, try to avoid management as much as possible. Anytime there are questions suspicions involving large corporations and/or government power, one can usually follow the money to find the truth. Captain Michel Asseline "44" Second Officer Pierre Mazire "45" Captain Asseline has logged 10,463 flight hours while First Officer Maziere . Heres a story about me and you. He was the lead test pilot for the A320 in its development. 12:44:14 - the engine power is reduced to flight idle. Anyone who has worked the same job for many years knows that your job after so long becomes second nature to you. In 1997, all five were found guilty. guilty of manslaughter and bodily harm, again on the basis of the Get a job criticizing - nobody blames you for doing that. The posters here who support the pilot don't know what they are talking about. He had to spot the airfield from the air and prepare to do the overflight. Some individual in Texas, I read a little excerpt from book written by a man whom I quite dislike,. 12:43:44 - the aircraft begins its descent from 2,000 feet (610m), initially at a rate of 300 feet (91m) per minute with 'Flaps 1'. That was sheer stupidity. The pilot and copilot were charged and convicted of three counts of involuntary manslaughter in the French criminal courts. I am Captain Michel. The others were sentenced to probation. Ascending at such an angle would lead to the planes stalling within minutes. Today, the captain, Michel Asseline has lost his French pilot license for 8 years. I don't know how passenger survived. Yes, Cpt. The fact the plane took over in the end should have been of no concern to him and his passengers had he followed the rules and flown at 500ft. 12:45:35 - nose-up attitude is now 15 and speed is 122 knots. COLMAR, France (AP) _ The pilot of an Airbus A320 jetliner that crashed during a 1988 air show, killing three passengers while hundreds watched, was sentenced to six months in prison Friday. [2], Official reports concluded that the pilots flew too low, too slow, failed to see the forest and accidentally flew into it. Captain Michel Asseline served a year in prison. He was flying with visual flight rules. I find it ironic that so many people blame the captain and no mention of Air France who planned the entire thing! Captain Asseline flew the aircraft manually. [2], Traditionally, pilots respect the inherent dangers of flying at low speeds at low altitude, and normally, a pilot would not attempt to fly an aircraft so close to stalling with the engines at flight idle (minimum thrust setting in flight). Its FREE!!! Both pilots received minor head injuries and also suffered from smoke inhalation and shock. Man can find signs of manipulation in recorded data, missing data etc. Captain Michel Asseline, 44, had been a pilot with Air France for almost twenty years and had the following endorsements: Caravelle; Boeing 707, 727, and 737; and Airbus A300 and A310. I have a hard time believing that the pilot was literally four seconds from the trees when he applied power. Views from inside the cockpit, Aircraft Cabins This Pin was discovered by flygcforum.com. Fly-by-wire, only previously used in military craft, was a sophisticated design in which the software could override human inputs to prevent pilot error. I think this is a great thread, I also wonder what happens to pilots after landing incidents etc, like TK incident at KTM what happens to pilots after such incidents? Where was that, somewhere in Kentucky or Tennessee? The plane clipped some trees during a low pass over the airfield and plunged into a forest. The press was aboard. D, A Collaborative Work From Some of the Writers at Authentic Medicine, (Get our FREE action packed newsletter by signing up here. What is crucial is to understand the threats that can lead to errors, look at how those threats can be mitigated, and have procedures in place that allow errors to be caught and resolved before they become a safety event. Couldn't even begin to imagine what he has gone through. Sorry but the pilot is at fault. [2] The flyover had been approved by Air France's Air Operations Directorate and Flight Safety Department, and air traffic control and Basel tower had been informed. I should estimate that in my experience most troubles and most possibilities for improvement add up to the proportions something like this: 94% belongs to the system (responsibility of management), 6% special. Page 315 of Out of the Crisis by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Some passengers had difficulty unfastening their seatbelts because they were unfamiliar with the mechanism (which differs from the type used in car seatbelts). Privacy Policy. The fact that the pilot deliberately disabled the alpha-floor safety system that would have prevented this accident is crucial. Taking Healthcare Back From The Idiots Who Are Now In Charge. The crash was a great embarrassment to Air France and Airbus, a European company with deep roots in France. He did the best he could. 2) he was slotted to fly over paved long runway and switched to short grass field where all the spectators were. If he and his crew, knowing the dangers that are inherrent in a low speed, low level flyover, want to, that is thier profesional decision. However, the elevators did not respond to the pilot's commands because the A320's computer system engaged its "alpha protection" mode (meant to prevent the aircraft from entering a stall). The engine spool-up time of about 5 sec was perfectly correct, given that they had been pulled right back to flight-idle. Interruption of the power occurred forward of the tail sectionmost probably in the wheel-well area, which was heavily damaged. ALL pilots KNOW, that there is a spool up time on jetengines. Most of the posters here are missing the relevant point. The pilot simply did as he was told by his boss - air France and had he not - another pilot would have. Guilty. The computer didnt know he meant just to pop up a few hundred feet. Four seconds later, the aircraft begins striking the treetops. There's every reason to suspect Airbus is correct, that many crashes have been prevented. Both pilots Captain Asseline and First Officer Mazire survived. I even can't remember the name of the Germanwings pilot at the moment and he is quite "famous". He continued flying and after two years he became a captain again Everyone airminded in France knows that Michel Asseline, who was an Air France chief pilot instructor at the beginning of the Airbus A-320 era and PIC in the A-320 that crashed at Mulhouse-Habsheim airfield in June 1988, resumed his career some years after the accident as a Boeing-737 pilot in Australia. Some faceless desk-pilot added on a trip to a tiny airfield on the day of the flight but did not bother to do the hard work of preparing the particulars necessary to do so. Why well to see were i am landing first to know that what i have been given as a map of the airport is infarct correct.That the runway I am landing on has no trucks parked on it performing maintenance or potholes that have not been repaired or reported. Most of the crash sequence, which occurred in front of several thousand spectators, was caught on video. Incidents with no casualties but with damage to the ac? Asseline's experience of flying the aircraft type at the outer limits of its flight performance envelope may have led to overconfidence and complacency. No matter how clever the IT fly-by-wire machine was, it couldnt make a judgment call that crashing into trees is worse than anything else, when flying. A training captain since 1979, he was appointed to head the company's A320 training subdivision at the end of 1987. Captain Michel Asseline asserted that the altimeter read 30m (100'). It is BASIC knowledge!!! It was piloted by a premier captain of Air France, Captain Michel Asseline, with over10,000 air hours, and led the training division of Air France for qualifying pilots on the Airbus 320. The captain would make a low-level fly-pass over Runway 02, climb up and turn back, and repeat the fly-pass over the same runway in the reciprocal direction (Runway 20). A further ten seconds later, 'Flaps 2' is selected. Everyone airminded in France knows that Michel Asseline, who was an Air France chief pilot instructor at the beginning of the Airbus A-320 era and PIC in the A-320 that crashed at Mulhouse-Habsheim airfield in June 1988, resumed his career some years after the accident as a Boeing-737 pilot in Australia. Menu. Defects come in all shades. To think that there was a conspiracy against him. "I've done it twenty times!" Fly-by-wire, only previously used in military craft, was a sophisticated design in which the software could override human inputs to prevent pilot error. 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