He was destined to fail. as a pilot my self the rules are for made for a reason they are not to be broken by a pilot for his own or anyone's purpose. It was a demonstration charter flight, Air France Flight 296. Both pilots Captain Asseline and First Officer Mazire survived. Do you think Airbus truly covered up a serious flaw in their aircraft? Both pilots received minor head injuries and also suffered from smoke inhalation and shock. Captain Michel Asseline got burnt doing a routine, everyday maneuver that his plane just couldnt handle, one that an open-cockpit biplane could. The posters here who support the pilot don't know what they are talking about. [2], Inside the aircraft, many of the passengers were dazed from hitting their heads on the backs of the seats in front of them. The crash was a great embarrassment to Air France and Airbus, a European company with deep roots in France. Some passengers had difficulty unfastening their seatbelts because they were unfamiliar with the mechanism (which differs from the type used in car seatbelts). Airbus had too much to lose as far as money invested developing the plane. This is a clear case of giving a good dog a bad name in other to hang it.Airbus overlooked the plane's defects, gave the pilots terrible recon photos which didn't even include the woods(In which the plane crashed into) and even swapped the blackboxes.Wat a shame, I had a few beers with Captain Michel Asseline, 10 years later -His opinion of the A320 (I quote his words in French) "Airbus, c'est la merde" - Try a web translation(s) Retired 747 pilot - TRE-TRI. He gave the best he could to make it fly. All the passengers were specially selected for the trip. 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? The accident aircraft, an Airbus A320-111, registration F-GFKC, serial number 9, first flew on 6 January 1988 and was delivered to Air France on 23 June, three days prior to its destruction. Totaly miracle. Five individuals, including the captain and first officer, were later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. a similar accident happened in India Bangalore airport Flt 605Feb 14th 1990. the aircraft took 8seconds to respond. A training captain since 1979, he was appointed to head the company's A320 training subdivision at the end of 1987. He had been charged with ``involuntary homicides and injuries.. [3], It was also claimed by the Institute of Police Forensic Evidence and Criminology, based in Switzerland, that the flight data recorders may have been switched and were not the original ones in the airplane. The plan was to overfly Runway Ought-2; the aircraft was configured for a low-altitude overflight. The purser, a passenger, and a flight attendant (a guest from another airline) managed to push the door fully open. Michel Asseline. Some pilots may not want to go back into the cockpit due to fear and mental trauma from their prior acts or cultural pressure to not do so. OEB 06/2: Baro-Setting Cross Check. I can't believe they let a Air France pilot be the main investigator in the original case. It threatened to ruin the reputation of the A320, potentially losing many millions of dollars in sales. He told his history in his book "Le pilote est-il coupable?" But as the aircraft approached the field, the flight deck crew noticed that the spectators were gathered beside runway 34R (2,100 feet (640m) long, grass). If we try to eliminate error altogether, we're kidding ourselves. Cookie Notice This bug has now been corrected in later versions of the 320. He choose to break the rule and it cost some lives plane and simple. I've been at my job 20 years - I know my job inside and out. Airport overviews from the air or ground, Tails and Winglets The press was aboard. Whos going to fly the goddamn airplanes in the future? 12:44:14 - the engine power is reduced to flight idle. Local emergency services were informed by radio communication. 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. The first crash that comes to mind is the one where that CRJ2 crashed because it took off on the wrong runway and the only survivor was one of the pilots. That pilot should walk free. Foremost in my mind when I fly is safety not only form anyone flying with me but also for myself. In the process, the purser and the passenger were thrown out of the fuselage with the slide landing on top of them. Overflight at this altitude made the demonstration to the crowd even more awe-inspiring. Then pretty much all doubt was removed by the crash of AF447, in which the flight data recorders showed that Airbus' control systems were completely incapable of dealing with a situation that would have been routine for a conventionally controlled aircraft, and the pilots were equally unable to deal with it, since they had basically never been trained to truly fly the aircraft. 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. 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? I don't think so. The combination of these issues and possible pilot error results in a crash into a nearby forest that kills three passengers. There is a CA that I knew that turned his T-Tail aircraft into the wing of another aircraft and he remained with the same company but ended up as a ground instructor for situational awareness classes. Ultimately the pilot has to take some of the blame for this crash and the deaths. He did the best he could. This is NOT to say the Airbus' control system has not prevented plenty of crashes. If we come down hard on anyone who makes an error (I'm looking at you, airlines who "resign" flight crews over errors), we're asking for errors to continue unchecked until an aircraft gets binned. Three seconds later, the aircraft descends through 40 feet (12m) at an airspeed of 132 knots. [1] On 26 June 1988, the plane crashed while making a low pass over MulhouseHabsheim Airfield (ICAO airport code LFGB) as part of the Habsheim Air Show. [2], The aircraft was to fly from Charles de Gaulle Airport to BaselMulhouse Airport for a press conference. It was far easier to have the pilot be the fall guy. This was the first fatal crash of an Airbus A320. The egress of the passengers was temporarily halted while the purser and another flight attendant began clearing the branches. Case Study 9: Leap of Faith Summary: In the case study, Captain Michel Asseline piloted the brand new Airbus A320 for the airshow in France. I am Captain Michel. Five individuals, including the captain and first officer, were later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The captain would slow the aircraft to its minimum flying speed with maximum angle of attack, disable the "alpha floor" (the function that would otherwise automatically increase engine thrust when the angle of attack reached 15) and rely on the first officer to adjust the engine thrust manually to maintain 100 feet. You don't need to think as much you just do. I have no doubt the pilot was to blame, and the conspiracy theorists (tampering with a black box?) It would not open, which was fortunate as there was by that time a fire on the left wing. Asseline fcuked up big time and killed 3 people. [ 1,292 more word ] Asseline had to disengage the autothrottle and the alpha floor function which he was used to applying in high altitude flight. 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 threatened to ruin the reputation of the A320, potentially losing many millions of dollars in sales. It then takes one second more to go from 67 to 83% N1. A very unfortunate event in history! geo's documentary. Why be a sucker? French investigation says that Asseline was trying to do an overly-ambitious maneuver and made critical errors. He was President of the leading French pilots union, the SNPL, at the time an Airbus A320 crashed into trees at Habsheim in Eastern France in June 1988. But the take home message, why do you spend every day at work in the cross-hairs of numerous non-producers who cant do the job, but are stalking you? He said this at least a decade before the Airbus crash. The press was aboard. The transcription was later clarified with the assistance of the pilots involved. To confirm, a close friend and colleague worked with M. Asseline for a simulator acceptance, and assessed him also as over-confident to the point of being arrogant. Pilot was sentenced to imprisonment for about a year. Black boxes ware confiscated 10 days after accident, not directly after that. After the rush of people had left and the interior was fast becoming toxic, she stood at the front door and called back into the cabin. ButThe black boxes shown in court were clearly NOT the ones from the plane and many questionable and/or unauthorized persons DID have access to them at various times in the investigation. Would you fly with this ass. at the controls? Decisions can only be made after a proper investigation. I want to do a good job and take pride in my work. The purser went to announce instructions to the passengers but the public address system handset had been torn off. 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/. He gave the best he could to make it fly. They might be paid, or simply represent interest of a much more powerful players - Air France. Get a job criticizing nobody blames you for doing that. This particular flight was the A320's first passenger flight (most of those on board were journalists and raffle winners). Three seconds later, the undercarriage is extended. One and a half years after this accident it is still not known why this crash happened. In 1997, all five were found guilty. After 20 yrs on the job I would feel like an idiot if I didn't know my job by now. He was flying with visual flight rules. The A320 had been recently introduced, and Flight 296 was the first passenger flight of the A320. . Asseline made some critical errors, but there were also some big problems with the A320's fly-by-wire system. I, personally, do not agree with the conclusions reached in this aircraft accident report. He wanted to pop up 70 feet to get over the trees. 3 people died due to smoke. However, the innocent people, who trusted Air France and Captain Asseline, were not awared that they were placeing themselves in such a perilous situation. Michel Asseline, a senior pilot with Air France for eight years, was fired Wednesday following a particularly grave failure for which he was held responsible and which made his continued employment with Air France impossible, a company spokesman said. My feeling: pilot did as he was told by air France. Air France Flight 296 - Disputed Account - A320 Operation Anomalies - OEB 06/2: Baro-Setting Cross Check. The flight plan originally filed did not include the flyover of the Habsheim Air Show, which was added on the morning of the flight. He says that when Airbus realized that this would be a PR disaster, that they tampered with evidence to make it appear that he had not taken corrective action soon enough. The flight would take 130 passengers and 6 crew aloft. There is even a program for pilots who make mistakes and errors to fess up. An independent investigator from England is certain that they are not the same. [5][6], The plane's flight recorders were found still attached in the unburnt tail section. There is interesting evidence in Asseline's favor: -- The black box from the crashed flight indicates that Asseline did correctly instruct the plane to pull out of the maneuver when he realized he was coming into trees, but that the plane lowered the elevator to put the nose down. Community. There's every reason to suspect Airbus is correct, that many crashes have been prevented. I don't know how passenger survived. Very low flyover height, lower than surrounding obstacles; Speed very slow and reducing to reach maximum possible angle of attack; Passengers should be banned from all demonstration flights, Flight crews should be provided with and ensure proper reconnaissance of airfields, Airline company procedures should be reviewed to ensure they comply with official regulations concerning altitude, This page was last edited on 14 January 2023, at 19:11. Bullshit. Guilty. In this instance, however, the pilots involved did not hesitate to fly the aircraft below its normal minimum flying speed because the purpose of the flyover was to demonstrate that the aircraft's computer systems would ensure that lift would always be available regardless of how the pilots handled the controls. Then, as she was helping another passenger whose clothes were on fire, she was carried forward by the surge of people rushing to escape. Captain Michel Asseline. Captain Michel Asseline asserted that the altimeter read 30m (100'). Interruption of the power occurred forward of the tail sectionmost probably in the wheel-well area, which was heavily damaged. Well to see if like i said a truck were parked on the runway or if the runway at the end had trees which were not on the map that he had. *Captain Michel Asseline got thrown under the Airbus. [2] Mazires had 10,853 hours of flight time. Fly-by-wire was perfect for this precision maneuver of an aircraft. He was not given a map and route. Captain Michel Asseline served a year in prison. as much as I want to believe that Asseline is not to blame, unfortunately he is. The combustion chambers clogged and the engines failed. He was never given the chance. Both military and civil versions, Blimps / Airships Heres a story about me and you. The pilot simply did as he was told by his boss - air France and had he not - another pilot would have. In 1998, Asseline's appeal was rejected and his sentence was increased to ten months of imprisonment along with ten months of probation. Heres a story about me and you. He was the lead test pilot for the A320 in its development. I think it much more likely that he applied power well before that, as he claims. The plane crashed because of a design defect; but because it was software and not metal, it was ignored. 12:45:30 - nose-up attitude increases to 7. It threatened to ruin the reputation of the A320, potentially losing many millions of dollars in sales. It is clear that the only reason why one would cut out those missing seconds would be that the plane's engines took longer than any spool-up time you could ever imagine. Airbus should have simply admitted this and moved on. "No, of course they shouldn't. Both pilots Captain Asseline and First Officer Mazire survived. Captain Asseline was flying to Mont Blanc, period. Its systems would not allow for mistakes. show at Mulhouse Habsheim in France. 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