When the French found the black boxes from Air France flight 447 nearly two years after the A330 airplane crashed in the Atlantic off Brazil, it was an incredible feat. But now, the French probably are wishing those black boxes remained on the floor of the ocean, because its national airline is about to face some tough questions regarding the actions of its pilots on that flight. No airplane accident happens because of just one problem, and this is no exception, but so far pilot error is really sticking out as the single largest contributor here.

Photo of Sister Ship to Crashed Airplane via Flickr user Tab59|CC 2.0

The French accident investigation group, the BEA, has put out an update on its investigation around what caused Air France 447 to crash (pdf) in the Atlantic back in 2009. Flightglobal has a good minute-by-minute breakdown of what all of the technical verbiage means, but let’s focus here on a few key points.

Pilots Were Not Inexperienced
One thing that has been picked up on elsewhere is that the Captain was not in the cockpit when this all started happening. That’s true, and it’s not a surprise. That’s why there are three pilots on longer flights like these. They rotate taking rest and this was the Captain’s turn. Does that mean that there were two inexperienced fools manning the controls? No. The co-pilots were highly trained and should have been able to handle this situation without needing the Captain. As Flight notes, one of the co-pilots had more time on the A330 than the Captain himself (just not in command). Experience shouldn’t have been the issue.

Turbulence Was Not a Factor
The aircraft went down in an area near strong equatorial storms, so many people assumed that the storms and the likely associated turbulence played a role. That no longer appears to be the case. The pilots were actively working their way around the storms, and while there was turbulence around, it doesn’t appear to have been anything severe. The storm likely did play a role in that it caused the pitot tubes to freeze over. Let’s talk about that . . .

Frozen Pitot Tubes Are the Likely Trigger
I don’t believe this has been officially confirmed, but the belief remains that the pitot tubes froze and that kicked off the problems on the airplane. Pitot tubes are little pokey-looking things that stick off the side of the airplane and measure airspeed. If the pitot tubes froze as expected, then speed readings would have been erratic and incorrect. That would have caused the airplane to shut off the autopilot as happened here. While it is a serious issue, it shouldn’t have cause and accident on its own.

Ultimately, the Pilots Screwed Up
Regardless of what happened with the pitot tubes, what happened next seems just unbelievable and certainly casts a great deal of blame on the pilots even though we won’t have the final report until next year. About 10 minutes before the autopilot shut off, the pilots noted that they couldn’t climb any higher than the 35,000 feet they were at because of their weight and the relatively warm air outside. In other words, if they climbed higher, they wouldn’t be able to generate enough lift. That makes what happens next even more strange.

When the autopilot shut off, the pilots should have worked to keep the plane flying as it was. After all, there wasn’t an actual speed problem but just a speed measurement issue. The engines worked just fine, so it should have been quite possible to keep the airplane on its path. That’s not what happened. Over the next four minutes, the pilots pulled the airplane into a climb and right into a stall and that led to the crash into the ocean. This goes against one of the most basic rules of flight.

When an airplane stalls, that means its angle of attack (the angle of the wing as compared to the direction of the air) is too great. Fixing it is pretty straightforward and it’s something that gets trained at very basic levels. As the FAA says in its Airplane Flying Handbook:

Reducing the angle of attack is the only way of recovering from a stall regardless of the amount of power used.

That means pushing the airplane’s nose down until the air once again runs smoothly over the wings. If you’re at 35,000 feet, don’t worry about losing altitude. Just get the airplane back into normal flight. How do you know if you’re in a stall? This is where the Boeing vs Airbus people will start their “mine is better than yours” fight.

On Boeing airplanes, the control column actually shakes to warn the pilot. (It’s known, unsurprisingly, as a stick shaker.) But most Airbus types, including the A330 that crashed here, operate with little joysticks on the side and these don’t have stick shakers. Instead, there is a very loud verbal warning repeated multiple times. Either way, it shouldn’t be missed. But don’t Airbus airplanes have greater automation to prevent these things anyway? Not in this case.

Airbus normally has automation protection that prevents pilots from doing something stupid like going into a steep climb in a situation like this, but those protections weren’t in effect because of the inaccurate airspeed readings. That pushed the airplane into Alternate Law which shuts down many of the protections that are in place during Normal Law.

When the Captain got back into the cockpit, the airplane had an angle of attack at an incredibly high 40 degrees and it was losing 10,000 feet per minute in altitude. Despite his best efforts to recover, it was a failed effort. The airplane hit the water with its nose up 16 degrees but still losing more than 10,000 feet per minute in altitude. I can’t imagine how awful those few minutes were for the passengers.

But the Pilots Aren’t To Be Blamed Completely
The final report hasn’t been issued and won’t be until next year, but it’s easy to see from this that the pilots and the pitot tubes were the two biggest contributors. Why did the pilots continue to apply nose-up pressure when that was the exact opposite of what would have happened? We’ll never know what was running through their heads, but it’s easy to see that they could have been distracted.

Remember, the pilots were already working to pick their way through the worst of the storms. Add to that the loss of the autopilot, dozens of failure messages, and inconsistent speed readings and it seems like the answer might be simple. The pilots may have been so distracted that they forgot to do the one thing they needed to do to survive: fly the airplane. Once the final report is issued, look for training changes to come out of this and possibly even some changes in the way Airbus puts its airplane logic together.

I know it’s Monday, but I have a long list of reasons for not posting today. Of course, it’s Memorial Day here in the US, but I’m also sick and I’m slammed trying to make sure that our new pricing over at Cranky Concierge is ready for a Wednesday launch. (One way pricing is coming, but that will mean an increase in rates for many of you.) So, for those of you in the US, enjoy the holiday. I’ll be back tomorrow with the latest on Air France flight 447 (the one that crashed over the Atlantic).

The elusive hunt for legroom on planes – CNN Out of the Office
This week, I take a look at legroom on airplanes and why seat pitch is a crappy measure.

In the Trenches: Planning for Turnover – Intuit Small Business Blog
I’m sadly losing one of my concierges in a couple weeks, and this time I’m far better prepared.

The latest volcano eruption in Iceland has caused some cancellations but they’ve been minor. The Europeans have finally created a system to better deal with ash and that should make things run smoothly. Hopefully. Anyone been stuck? Any thoughts on the new procedures?

Delta and US Airways are hoping that the third time’s a charm by putting the long-proposed slot swap in New York and Washington back on the table with some slight modifications. This time, I have to believe that it’s going to go through. They wouldn’t bother putting this out there if it was going to fail once again.

Here’s the plan this time around:

US Airways no longer wants the Japan slots it had wanted before, mostly because there is now an open skies agreement between the two countries and it doesn’t need to buy them. It also will no longer give up its terminal location in LaGuardia as before. Delta will get a few more slots in the deal, and US Airways gets a bunch of cash. Here’s the full rundown depending upon where you live:

For Washingtonians

• Delta will give 42 slot pairs (1 slot pair = 1 departure + 1 arrival) to US Airways at National and US Airways will begin service to at least 15 new destinations. Back when US Airways first announced it would do this deal in 2009, it gave 15 new destinations it would serve, so I imagine it will be similar.
• Delta will continue to serve its 7 (!) domestic hubs from National – which I assume are New York/JFK, Atlanta, Memphis, Detroit, Minneapolis/St Paul, Cincinnati, and Salt Lake City along with the shuttle to LaGuardia and some “select” cities, whatever that means. Delta never gave us any inkling before, so we can only guess now.
• This is pure speculation, but I would assume that US Airways will acquire more gates on the middle pier at National which would allow United to move to some old Delta gates on the south pier to be right next to Continental.
• If needed, Delta will give an additional 8 slot pairs to be divested for use by airlines with limited or no service at National. US Airways would still end up with 42 new slot pairs regardless. I assume the feds will make this a requirement.

For New Yorkers

• Delta will get a whopping 132 new slot pairs (up from the 125 in the first dealin the last deal, Delta would buy 125 but lease another 15 with the option to buy, so this is actually a decrease) at LaGuardia. We have no clue where they’ll go, but we can expect to see Delta replace US Airways on many of the airline’s current routes. Delta also says it will double the number of total destinations it serves, including some that aren’t currently served by US Airways.
• Delta will use an all-jet fleet at LaGuardia instead of the turboprops that US Airways currently uses. Wanna guess where those jets are coming from? My guess is the obvious. (*cough*Memphis*cough*Cincinnati*cough*)
• US Airways will give up 18 of the 20 gates in its terminal at LaGuardia (called Terminal C) to Delta. Delta will use those plus 11 in its current terminal (now Terminal D) for 29 in total. Delta will then build a connector between the two terminals so that it can operate as a single terminal from a passenger perspective. (They aren’t physically connected now.)
• Delta will continue to run the Shuttle from LaGuardia to Boston and Washington from six gates in the Marine Air Terminal, which is a change from the previous plan to consolidate in one place.
• US Airways will still have two gates in LaGuardia’s Terminal C along with 7 other parking spots from where it will run its operation have 6 gates once the terminal is reconfigured to add more spots plus 3 parking positions for regional jets. It will continue to have the Shuttle to Washington and Boston along with flights to Philly, Charlotte, and Pittsburgh but that’s it. The previous plan to keep Wilmington (who knows why) won’t happen.
• Delta will take over the current US Airways Club at LaGuardia in Terminal C and turn it into a Sky Club to complement the existing club in Terminal D. US Airways will build a new, smaller lounge for its operation.
• Delta (not US Airways) will give up 16 slot pairs at LaGuardia to new entrants if needed, and you can bet that will be the case.

On top of all this, US Airways will get a slot to fly to Sao Paulo in 2015, which is on top of another slot it already has acquired on its own. As mentioned above, the Tokyo slot that was previously included is gone since Japan and the US now have open skies. To make everything work out after these changes, Delta will drop $66.5 million into a US Airways bank account.

So why do I say this is a done deal? Because it has to be. US Airways and Delta had filed an appeal in the courts to force the feds to allow this to happen. As part of this new deal, the airlines are dropping the appeal. There has to have been a lot of backroom bargaining here. The feds must have given the green light behind the scenes or these airlines wouldn’t have bothered making another proposal. To me, the only question is who will get those divested slots and will the full amount be required.

As Delta and US Airways both make clear, things have changed a lot since the swap was first proposed nearly two years ago. Southwest has gone into LaGuardia on its own and its purchase of AirTran gives it more slots there as well as some at National for the first time. JetBlue has found its own way into National as well. So there is a lot more low cost airline penetration and connectivity to the rest of the country. It should be enough.

I’m actually surprised that Delta is willing to pony up 24 slots just to appease the feds here. But Delta has been foaming at the mouth around cementing its role in New York and this would be a huge step forward. It would also be a major slap at American. The new United and Delta will be the two biggest players in the New York area and American will have to figure out how it wants to respond, if it does at all.

I still like this swap a lot, and I think it should have been approved two years ago. Let’s hope that this is effectively a done deal at this point.

Updated 5/26 @ 1009a to reflect that I forgot about the previous deal to lease 15 slots to Delta at LaGuardia. Also received clarification from US Airways that the terminal will be reconfigured and it will still have 6 gates plus 3 parking positions at LaGuardia.