The harrowing final words of an Air France pilot have been revealed, capturing the moment he realised he had lost control of the aircraft before it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board.
Tragedy struck in June 2009 when a flight travelling from Brazil to France disappeared in a violent storm. Heartbreakingly, not a single one of the 228 on board, including passengers and crew members, survived the Airbus A330 crash, as per CNN.
Recovery of the Black Box
A two-year search operation covering 10,000 square metres followed before the black box and cockpit voice recordings of the pilots' final moments were recovered, allowing investigators to piece together what truly happened that day.
When they finally came, the findings were horrifying. First officer Pierre-Cedric Bonin, 32, could be heard saying what no one wants to hear on board a plane. He said: "I don't have control. I don't have control of the aeroplane at all!"
Confusion in the Cockpit
Relief first officer David Robert, 37, told Bonin to move the controls to the left before taking over from his colleague. However, Bonin continued to grip his side-stick, meaning their inputs were cancelling each other out.
A further alarming question came from their commander, 58-year-old Captain Marc Dubois, who asked: "Er what are you [doing]?" Robert said that they had lost "all control" of the aircraft and that every attempt to recover it had failed.
Robert said to himself: "Climb, climb, climb, climb." The captain warned: "Watch out, you are pulling up."
Final Moments and Cause
Bonin responded: "But I've been at maximum nose-up for a while!" In a devastating moment, Dubois realised Bonin was causing the stall and screamed: "No no no, don't climb! No No No!" Bonin handed the controls to Robert, but their fate was already sealed as the aircraft was too low to recover from the stall.
In a last-ditch effort, Bonin wrenched his side-stick back and swore, before screaming: "We're going to crash! This can't be true. But what's happening?" It remains unclear who spoke next, but an eerie voice was heard saying: "F***, we're dead."
Technical malfunctions, treacherous weather conditions and pilot error were ruled as the cause of the disaster. After the aircraft stalled, the pilots did not respond as they should have, triggering the terrifying descent of 11,000ft per minute. Regarding the technical failures, investigators said ice crystals had formed on the aircraft, causing the autopilot to disconnect mid-flight. Erroneous airspeed readings left the pilots bewildered, and under immense pressure, one made the fatal mistake of pulling the plane's nose upwards rather than downwards following the stall.
