Pilots were sleeping when Air France flight crashed

Two out of three Air France pilots were sleeping minutes before their plane plunged into the sea off Brazil in 2009, with the loss of all 228 people on board. Details of the last moments of Flight 447 have emerged in a disturbing new investigation published in the October edition of Vanity Fair magazine. Excerpts from recorded conversations between 37-year-old David Robert, Pierre-Cedric Bonin, 32, and Marc Dubois, the 58-year-old captain of the plane, reveal that two of them were asleep when the plane got into difficulty in a tropical storm.

F***, we’re dead.

David Robert, pilot of Air France Flight 447

Chief investigator Alain Bouillard is quoted as saying: “If the captain had stayed in position through the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone, it would have delayed his sleep by no more than 15 minutes, and because of his experience, maybe the story would have ended differently.” Air France has denied that its pilots were incompetent, but has since improved training, concentrating on how to fly a plane manually when there is a stall. Both Air France and Airbus are facing manslaughter charges, with a judicial investigation led by Paris judges underway.

But I do not believe it was fatigue that caused him [Dubois] to leave. It was more like customary behavior, part of the piloting culture within Air France.

Chief investigator Alain Bouillard

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