Jericho M.
Lipana Sept 10, 2019
BSLM 2A Sir Mark Paolo
Reflection Paper on Air France flight 296
Summary of the event
On June 26 1988 at Basel- Mulhouse airport France, Air France flight 296 prepares for a charter flight the
plane AF296 is a brand new airbus a320-111. The captain is Michel A has been with air France for 20
years and is a highly distinguished pilot with 10,463 flight hours, was appointed to head the company’s
A320 training subdivision at the end of 1987. As Air France’s technical pilot, he had been heavily involved
in test flying the A320 type the copilot is first officer Pierre M. who has 10,853 hours of flight time the airbus
has been recently introduced. This particular flight is going to be the A320s very first passenger flight. Air
France will perform a flyover at the Habsheim airshow. This will be followed by a sightseeing trip south to
Mont Blanc. The pilots didn’t receive the flight plan till morning. They received no verbal details about the
flyover or the aerodrome itself. There are 130 passengers and 6 crew members on board, most of the
passengers on board consists of journalists and raffle winners. The flight is also going to be the first public
demonstration of any civilian fly-by-wire Aircraft, fly-by-wire is a system that computerizes flight controls. It
gives computers the ability to overdrive human inputs to prevent pilot errors. The A320s systems wont let
the pilots do anything they believe is dangerous. The captain wants to make a low altitude flyby at alpha
max, this is the slowest a plane can fly without stalling. The flight to the airfield will take just a few minutes.
Eight minutes later the A320 is approaching the aerodrome, Hasheim aerodrome is too small to be listed in
the aircraft’s flight computer, so the pilots have to find it visually. The pilots spotted the airfield late, so they
need to descend quickly. The captain was expecting from the flight plan to do the pass, over runaway 02
(paved) and was preparing for the alignment but as the aircraft approaches field, the flight deck crew
notices that the spectators a re gathered beside runaway 34R. The captain turns the A320 towards the
grass runaway. This last minute deviation in the approach further distracted the crew from stabalizing the
aircraft’s altitude. The pilots attempt to lose more altitude and speed as they position for the flyover. The
captain turns now off the auto throttle, so that the computer will not add more power. The captain has to
keep the plane in a stable position with the nose up. Air France flight crashes into the forest at the end of
runaway 34R, everyone survives but three passengers are unable to evacuate. Investigators concluded
that because the aircraft commenced a rapid decent, It didn’t stabalize properly. The A320 continued to
descend to 30 feet instead of stabalizing to 100 feet. When the captain tried to climb the moment he saw
the forest, The A320’s systems overdrove the pilot’s action. The A320s systems attempted to drop the nose
of the plane down instead, because the A320s systems believed that the aircraft was about to stall. The
investigator’s reporter further recommended that passengers should be banned from all demonstration
flights and airline company procedures should be reviewed to ensure they comply with official regulations
concerning altitude. The captain, the first officer, two air France officials and the president of the flying club
who sponsored the air show, were all charged with involuntary manslaughter. Despite the crash, there’s not
much negative impact on the airbus name. The airbus A320 would go on to be the most successful aircraft
in aviation history
Implication of what happened to aviation/ Robotic Industry
The Airbus A320 would still go on to be the most successful aircraft in aviation history. Airbus sold more
than 7,000 A3205 as of mid 2016
Recommendations of the national transport safety board
-Airline pilots be reminded that their job consists of strictly applying standard and well defined procedures.
Consequently, their training be more oriented towards safety which requires that standard flight conditions
be permanently maintained for the A320 training in particular, the pilots are made aware that the
performance limitations still stand, as an any other aircraft, in spite of the many automatic protections for
flights made with crew members of the same rank, the functions of each and the task sharing be especially
well defined.
-The preparation of such flights includes as a minimal and in addition to the actions already explicitly
provided for in the regulations: - the drawing-up of a comprehensive flight safety brief specifying the flight
parameters to be observed and the procedures to be followed in case of a failure, a meeting between the
crew and the departments which participated in the flight preparation, organized within good time before the
scheduled date of flight, effective reconnaissance of the place where the flight is to be made, and if
possible: one or more practice flights on a representative flight simulator including special attention to the
critical aspects which may result from non-observance of the flight parameters, especially in case of a
failure.
-This type of flight (participation in air shows) be made without passengers and with minimum crew
including only the persons required to carry out the flight, the only maneuvers authorized with passengers
on-board being these laid down in the operating manual.
- Internal rules of the airlines be checked for conformity with official regulations.
Personal opinion about the incident
In my opinion, the fly-wire system may be a key factor in the crash but I believe the pilots and the Air
France officials are also at fault. First of all the pilots didn’t have enough time to prepare for they only
received the flight plan that morning. Captain Michel blamed the fly-by-wire system but the Airbus A320-
111 involved has more than proved itself since the accident in 1988When a possible dangerous flight stunt
is planned, it needs to be perfectly planned, with the pilot and the flight crew knowing every detail about it. I
get the whole point in letting passengers board the plane on an airshow, so they can experience the newly
developed Airbus first hand. But I’m just wondering why they haven’t tested the Airbus before showcasing
in the Airshow and letting passengers board. The problem here is that the Air France officials became to
overconfident on the safety and performance their plane will do in the airshow.
