Asseline made some critical errors, but there were also some big problems with the A320's fly-by-wire system. The Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) continued to operate for about one second, then recorded nonsensical data for another two seconds. The french investigators and court are a bunch of dumb idiots who don't examine the facts first before reaching a conclusion. Captain Michel Asseline served a year in prison. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. However, the elevators did not respond to the pilot's commands because the A320's computer system engaged its "alpha protection" mode (meant to prevent the aircraft from entering a stall). The A320 had been recently introduced, and Flight 296 was the first passenger flight of the A320. Facts: 1) new plane (model/style) = bugs still to be discovered & pilots not familiar w how plane functions (new technology / automation) 2) pilot was not familiar w air field not shown air field and only given a map of it (inaccurate map showing no terrain) right before the flight 3) air France never should have had people on the flight except crew knowing all these factors. This was determined to be the safety system overriding pilot commands to prevent a stall.-- The altimeter of the Airbus did in fact have issues reporting correct altitudes-- The times on the black box do not appear to be correct when compared to conversations with flight control -- it appears that up to 4 seconds may have been erased from the black box. Nor, then, were his passengers. That pilot should walk free. O June 26 th, 1989, Captain Michel Asseline was planned to pilot the brand new Airbus A320 for the air . Air France was especially impressed with the A320, which was the first fly-by-wire airplane ever to carry passengers. COLMAR, France (AP) _ The pilot of an Airbus A320 jetliner that crashed during a 1988 air show, killing three passengers while hundreds watched, was sentenced to six months in prison Friday. . I'm not cocky - I'm just good at my job. Overflight at this altitude made the demonstration to the crowd even more awe-inspiring. Not easy, but not impossible. I don't know how passenger survived. There are several "small" inconsistencies and anomalies throughout the entire accident report which have not been explained sufficiently for any critically-thinking investigatorSTILL.The crew did NOT make sure all the passengers were out before exiting themselves as per protocol, and then misinformed the captain that everyone was out. Not unless their was prior approval by the proper authorities that made the rules that allowed for him to break it. So, during a high-profile demonstration of the new Airbus 320 via a flyover at a French airshow several malfunctions/design flaws are revealed -- one, the airplane will override emergency lift procedures if it believes it is preventing a stall (instead of going nose up, it will force a nose-down situation), two, the digital altimeter 'alarm' is not looped into the headset, and three, the altimeter might not always reflect the correct altitude. It threatened to ruin the reputation of the A320, potentially losing many millions of dollars in sales. He is in a wheel chair now, but thats gotta be a tough one to be the one and only survivor and its because of an error on his part. He didnt familiarize himself with the airfield as he should have and he must take responsibility for flying at only 30 feet instead of 100ft. There is even a program for pilots who make mistakes and errors to fess up. He knowingly took it into a dangerous situation where the aircraft had to take measures to protect itself (which most planes don't). Not only was he told to go there, he was told the wrong runway to overfly. To think that there was a conspiracy against him. This distance was too short for them to stabilise the aircraft's altitude and speed for the flyover. Fly-by-wire was perfect for this precision maneuver of an aircraft. Community. The plane crashed because of a design defect; but because it was software and not metal, it was ignored. Who went to prison? Not being able to fly directly to the airport. Incidents with no casualties but with damage to the ac? [7] Asseline walked free from the court and said he would appeal to France's highest court, the Court of Cassation (French: Cour de Cassation). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_296. Pilot was sentenced to imprisonment for about a year. Even if his boss said fly at 100ft or you will lose your job he should not have flown at that height. If you change the pilots cap for a lab coat, arent you Captain Michel Asseline, too? Where was that, somewhere in Kentucky or Tennessee? Captain Asseline, and four other Air France employees are convicted of involuntary manslaughter. [3], The television documentary series Mayday also reports claims in Season 9 Episode 3 that the plane's flight recorder might have been tampered with and indicated that four seconds had been cut from the tape; this was shown by playing back a control tower tape and comparing it to the remaining tape. Captain Michel Asseline got burnt doing a routine, everyday maneuver that his plane just couldnt handle, one that an open-cockpit biplane could. I have seen TV shows where he was even interviewed. Even if no one had died even if there had been no accident he would have and should have been charged with endangering the safety of the passengers. 12:45:35 - nose-up attitude is now 15 and speed is 122 knots. Since the plane was going slow, the computer overrode his input, and denied the maneuver. Born Today Most Popular Celebs Most Popular Celebs Celebrity News. And in the end its all a metter of money and intrest. [2] The flyover had been approved by Air France's Air Operations Directorate and Flight Safety Department, and air traffic control and Basel tower had been informed. He had to spot the airfield from the air and prepare to do the overflight. There is evidence for this: -- Asseline was the pilot in charge of training others on this airplane, but he is on record saying that he found the secondary digital altimeter to be unreadable, and to this day he hasn't been able to use it during flight.-- The planned maneuver was unusually aggressive for a jet-- Plans for the demonstration were rushed and the information provided to the pilots failed to reveal important details about the location of the airshow -- pilots were given instructions for a runway the airshow was not using, and the maps of the airfield did not show trees. Due to the many demands of redirection and reconfiguration, the craft flew above Runway 34R at 30 feet, not the usual 100 feet which is standard for low-altitude demonstration overflight. The purser, a passenger, and a flight attendant (a guest from another airline) managed to push the door fully open. Air France didn't inform the crew of this critical change (yet the crew voices are recorded on black boxes, and they use imperial units). In 1997, all five were found guilty. [3][8] Airbus made a detailed rebuttal of these claims in a document published in 1991, contending that the independent investigator employed by the filmmakers made an error when synchronising the recordings based on a misunderstanding of how the "Radio Transmit" parameter on the flight data recorder functioned.[9]. Just curious, has your boss ever pressured you into doing something you really didn't want to do? Self: Air Crash Investigation. You must learn and follow the rules otherwise you may DIE or kill someone else and die.This one fact that Michael choose to fly at 100ft that Michael performed as the pilot in charge of this Aircraft is sufficient to place the guilt firmly in his lap. 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. A lot may have to do with corporate, national or ethnic culture, the severity of the incident, if the country the crash/incident has an attitude of criminalizing the acts of pilots (like in Brazil) or prior significant acts of error of the pilot in question. Asseline, who had been a senior pilot with Air France for eight years, maintained the pilots were unfairly blamed, and said the plane had failed to respond quickly to attempts to raise it. Captain Michel Asseline served a year in prison. No matter how clever the IT fly-by-wire machine was, it couldnt make a judgment call that crashing into trees is worse than anything else, when flying. Here's one I remember seeing a few years ago in Canada. [4], Captain Michel Asseline, 44, had been a pilot with Air France for almost twenty years and had the following endorsements: Caravelle; Boeing 707, 727, and 737; and Airbus A300 and A310. Its systems would not allow for mistakes. However the fact he had never flown to this airport previously. It was piloted by a premier captain of Air France, Captain Michel Asseline, with over10,000 air hours, and led the training division of Air France for qualifying pilots on the Airbus 320. [2] Additionally, the captain was expecting from the flight plan to do the pass over runway 02 (3,281 feet (1,000m) long, paved) and was preparing for that alignment. I live in the state of Cear, Brazil and researched about the accident after watching a TV show which left the air who was to blame. Ascending at such an angle would lead to the planes stalling within minutes. 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. Captain Asseline was flying to Mont Blanc, period. Pilots that make mistakes -- Where are they today? I, personally, do not agree with the conclusions reached in this aircraft accident report. Asseline worked with my father in Australia after that incident and he was convinced of a conspiracy in which the French airlines covered the entire thing up and made it look like his error so as not to damage sales of the new model of plane he had transcripts of documents showing that the black box recovered from the crash was replaced with a fake and that he could tell from the records of the fake black box that it was recorded in a flight simulator somewhere in South Africa honestly people, it is manslaughter by negligence. 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