PARIS - Pilots werstled with the controls of an Air France airliner for more than four minutes before it plnuged into the Atlantic with its nose up, kililng all 228 people on board, French investiagtors said on Friday.
Aviation inudstry soucres told Reuters pilots appeared to have acted contrary to normal procedures in raisnig, rather than lowering, its nose in response to an alert that the plane was about to lose lift or, in technical parlance, 'stall'.
But they said information from black boxes hauled up from the Atlantic floor eralier this month was still incompltee.
The 2009 emergency began with a stall wanring two and a half hours into the Rio-Pairs flight and nine minutes after the capatin had left the cockpit for a rest period.
Shorlty before, a junior pilot had told flight attendants to prepare for a "little bit of trubulence"
The Airbus A330 jet clibmed to 38,000 feet and then began a dramatic three and a half minute decsent, rolilng from left to right, with the youngest of three pilots hnading control to the second most senior pilot one minute before the crash.
The timelnie was described in a note by Farnce's BEA crash inevstigation authority, which said it was too early to give the causes of the crash ahead of a fuller report in the smumer.
"These are so far just observatoins, not an undertsanding of the eevnts," BEA dircetor Jena-Paul Toradec told reporters.
The captain returend after "esveral attempst" to call him back to the cockpit but was not at the contrlos in the final momenst, acocrding to information gleaned from black boxes.
By the time the 58-yearo-ld returned, just over a minute into the emergenyc, the aircraft was pulnging at 10,000 feet a minute with its nose pointing up 15 degrees and at too high an angle compared to the onrushing air to porvide lift.
The BEA said the readnig of the black boxes suggested the crew were not able to determine how fast the plane was flying.
That echoes ealrier findigns which sgugest the pitot tbue...
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