- Title: FRANCE/FILE: Victims' families say investigation not over for AF447 crash
- Date: 30th July 2011
- Summary: LE BOURGET, FRANCE (JULY 29, 2011) (REUTERS) FAMILIES OUTSIDE FRENCH AIR ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION AUTHORITY (BEA) ARRIVAL OF PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILIES ASSOCIATION, ROBERT SOULAS SOULAS SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (French) PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILIES ASSOCIATION, ROBERT SOULAS, SAYING: "We have also learned that the enquiry was looking resolutely at the pilots and pilot error, and so this enquiry will now concentrate on the pilots behaviour and the physiological aspect, the relation between man and the machine, so it's a delicate situation." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (French) PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILIES ASSOCIATION, ROBERT SOULAS, SAYING: "What shocked us is that there is an absence of information on the pitot tubes, it seems now that the problem of the pitot tubes is secondary and part of the past, whereas for us the pitot tubes are at the heart of the problem. You should not forget that the deficiency of these was the initiating phenomena, the cause of this delicate and difficult situation for the pilots in the cockpit." FAMILIES WAITING, VARIOUS (SOUNDBITE) (German) SPOKESPERSON FOR GERMAN VICTIMS ASSOCIATION HIOP, BARBARA CROLOW, WHO LOST HER SON AND HER FIANCE, SAYING: "The recommendations of the BEA are focused primarily on having a better security training for the pilots, particularly the Air France pilots, because what they are reproaching them for, or what they have found out, is that the pilots were not adequately trained for this extreme situation. So the consequences of this are that the pilots have to be better trained." FAMILIES WAITING
- Embargoed: 14th August 2011 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Accidents,Transport
- Reuters ID: LVA6O7ZVUFV2KWQ533Z3TXTJFSEU
- Story Text: French investigators called on Friday (July 29) for better pilot training after a report into the crash of an Air France Rio-Paris flight two years ago found the crew ignored stall warnings and standard procedures.
France's BEA authority said pilots failed to discuss the repeated "stall" alarms as their doomed Airbus jet plummeted 38,000 feet and hurtled into the ocean at 200 km (125 miles) per hour, killing all 228 people on board.
"We have also learned that the enquiry was looking resolutely at the pilots and pilot error, and so this enquiry will now concentrate on the pilots behaviour and the physiological aspect, the relation between man and the machine, so it's a delicate situation," said the President of the French Families' Association, Robert Soulas.
He said the enquiry needed to continue and to look at the causes of what put the pilots in this situation in the first place.
"What shocked us is that that there is an absence of information on the pitot tubes, it seems now that the problem of the pitot tubes is secondary and part of the past, whereas for us the pitot tubes are at the heart of the problem. You should not forget that the deficiency of these was the initiating phenomena, the cause of this delicate and difficult situation for the pilots in the cockpit."
Barbara Crolow, spokeswoman for the German victims association, HIOP, said Air France pilots in particular needed better training.
"The recommendations of the BEA are focused primarily on having a better security training for the pilots, particularly the Air France pilots, because what they are reproaching them for, or what they have found out, is that the pilots were not adequately trained for this extreme situation. So the consequences of this are that the pilots have to be better trained," she said.
The BEA issued 10 new safety recommendations including more training on how to fly aircraft manually at high altitudes. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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