I take my hat off to the captain. The crash was a great embarrassment to Air France and Airbus, a European company with deep roots in France. Also punished with suspended sentences were Air Frances then-director of air operations, a security official for Air France, and the president of the Habsheim air club. This last-minute deviation in the approach further distracted the crew from stabilising the aircraft's altitude and they quickly dropped to 40 feet (12m).[2]. It would not open, which was fortunate as there was by that time a fire on the left wing. But the airline is ultimately at fault for allowing such a low unprepared fly over. He was a highly distinguished pilot with 10,463 flight hours. The plane clipped some trees during a low pass over the airfield and plunged into a forest. Unprofessional. The computer didnt know he meant just to pop up a few hundred feet. I am sorry that their may be other factors that may say hey if the plane had performed better and had not taken over he may have been able to fly over the trees and been able to safely land the plane. I'm confident in my skills & my co workers often come to me with questions or for help and always no matter how busy I am I gladly help them. Wouldnt a 200-foot overflight be nearly as spectacular? Captain Asseline was flying to Mont Blanc, period. When he increased throttle to level off at 100ft, the engines did not respond. I think this is a great thread, I also wonder what happens to pilots after landing incidents etc, like TK incident at KTM what happens to pilots after such incidents? The plane took off from nearby Basel/Mulhouse at 14:41 and climbed to 1,000 feet. Three seconds later, the aircraft descends through 40 feet (12m) at an airspeed of 132 knots. Nor, then, were his passengers. Any experienced pilot, or physician for that matter, smells disaster. It's about commercial aviation, and I've tried to include all the relevant facts for you to draw conclusions. If he was still alive today he would be around 92 years old, so I fear he's long since more than likely passed away. Captain Asseline was flying to Mont Blanc, period. Captain Asseline was initially sentenced to 6 months in prison along with 12 months of probation . 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. Hundreds of spectators witnessed the June 26, 1988, crash at the Mulhouse-Habsheim air show. Most of the public believes Airbus' controls systems were the root cause of this crash, or at least a major part of it. Taking Healthcare Back From The Idiots Who Are Now In Charge. And cheaper! As usual, I believe the truth is somewhere in the middle. On June 26, 1988, a very special Airbus A320 left Basel-Mulhouse Airport in Habsheim, France. Would YOU be happy to know your pilot was playing with your life? We dont give your email out and we dont spam you. Both military and civil versions, Blimps / Airships Trending. Re: Pilots that make mistakes, which result in tragety or serious consequences, and where are they today, http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=m a4bc613c6d. Not only was he told to go there, he was told the wrong runway to overfly. He also claims he recognized that spectators were on a different runway than the one included in his flight plan. Whos going to fly the goddamn airplanes in the future? I think it much more likely that he applied power well before that, as he claims. 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. Captain Michel Asseline got burnt doing a routine, everyday maneuver that his plane just couldnt handle, one that an open-cockpit biplane could. Business & Commercial Aviation BUSINESS & COMMERCIAL AVIATION CHALLENGING AIRPORTS LEARNING FROM TEST PILOTS After 20 yrs on the job I would feel like an idiot if I didn't know my job by now. I am Captain Michel. [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 served a year in prison. 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. Spectral analysis of the engine sounds indicated that 0.6 seconds later, both engines had reached 91% (by this stage, they were starting to ingest vegetation). I mostly blame the French courts for adding insult to injury and imposing a prison sentence on a man who may have faults, but definitely is not guilty of manslaughter. Some seconds later the aircraft touched the tops of the trees behind the runway and crashed into a forest. After the rush of people had left and the interior was fast becoming toxic, she stood at the front door and called back into the cabin. There's every reason to suspect Airbus is correct, that many crashes have been prevented. *Whos going to fly the goddamn airplanes in the future? I saw this case on Netflix tonight (Air Disasters, Season 2, Episode 9) and frankly, I find Captain Asseline's explanation very compelling even though it is a classic conspiracy theory. However the fact he had never flown to this airport previously. [2], The CVR was read during the night of 26 June at the BEA. But upon seeing the Aerodrome, the pilot saw that the audience were gathered elsewhere, on Runway 34R. Ascending at such an angle would lead to the planes stalling within minutes. Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR, Military Aircraft If the companies had been held even partially responsible, these men would have lost a great deal of money, as would have many high level politicians in the French government. Less than five seconds later, the turbines began ingesting leaves and branches as the aircraft skimmed the tops of the trees. Its systems would not allow for mistakes. Air France was especially impressed with the A320, which was the first fly-by-wire airplane ever to carry passengers. I don't know how passenger survived. If you get blamed for everything, its better to do nothing. 12:45:15 - the aircraft, now at 90 feet (27m), begins a deviation to the right (maximum bank angle: 30) to line up with the grass strip 34R. This is NOT to say the Airbus' control system has not prevented plenty of crashes. Case Study 9: Leap of Faith Summary: In the case study, Captain Michel Asseline piloted the brand new Airbus A320 for the airshow in France. Props and jets from the good old days, Flight Decks as a pilot my self the rules are for made for a reason they are not to be broken by a pilot for his own or anyone's purpose. The pilot was told, word-of-mouth, to do so. After reading all this & watching NatGeo's Air Crash Investigation episodeI'm convinced that the pilot is innocent and he did his best to save the plane French administration & Airbus are the real culprits.. Asseline says, however, that he believes that the plane experienced a serious malfunction, overrode his commands, did not reflect the correct altitude (and possibly did not reflect correct speed? Prison of Precision (Part 2) by Stephen Vaughn MD, Ph. As for pilots at the start of their career they work for peanuts $20,000 by the time they get up to $100k they been living like poppers long enough and I want a confident pilot not some mousy week person that buckles under pressure. Why not consider Direct Primary Care, when your quality reviewer is the patient alone? National Association of Veteran Affairs Physicians and Dentists (NAVAPD) is the official national organization of VA physicians and dentists who proudly serve our nation's veterans. This was to showcase the There is a flying carpet and its pilot; and there is a veritable sewer of filth which has been swept beneath it and has not yet been revealed to the public. Then pretty much all doubt was removed by the crash of AF447, in which the flight data recorders showed that Airbus' control systems were completely incapable of dealing with a situation that would have been routine for a conventionally controlled aircraft, and the pilots were equally unable to deal with it, since they had basically never been trained to truly fly the aircraft. Finally, the aircraft would return to Paris. Theres many more lessons to be learned about the practice of medicine from the story of Prisoner Michel Asseline sorry, Captain Michel Asseline. Not unless their was prior approval by the proper authorities that made the rules that allowed for him to break it. It certainly gives the impression of bias, even if there was none. They might be paid, or simply represent interest of a much more powerful players - Air France. I feel he should have radioed in and asked if it was acceptable to switch runways. [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). This more than anything caused the crash. [3], It was also claimed by the Institute of Police Forensic Evidence and Criminology, based in Switzerland, that the flight data recorders may have been switched and were not the original ones in the airplane. 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. The fact is that this kind of statement does not negate the fact that he was breaking the rules. [2], During the impact, the right wing was torn off, and the spilling fuel ignited immediately. Asseline argues that he attempted to apply thrust earlier than indicated in the flight recorder data. ", I thought a little more broadly. Nor, then, were his passengers. The captain, Michel Asseline, disputed the report and claimed an error in the fly-by-wire computer prevented him from applying thrust and pulling up. Aside from the strong evidence that Air France, Airbus and the nation itself may well have had a hand in falsifying data related to the crash, there are several very important points to take away in this very sad and tragic story. [1] A training captain since 1979, Asseline was appointed to head the company's A320 training subdivision at the end of 1987. Do you feel that Captain Asseline should have aborted the flyover? Foremost in my mind when I fly is safety not only form anyone flying with me but also for myself. Five individuals, including the captain and first officer, were later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He then tried to open the left-side forward door, which was blocked by trees. It threatened to ruin the reputation of the A320, potentially losing many millions of dollars in sales. Mayday also looks at the theory that it was the computer at fault, not the pilots. In order to accomplish the desk-pilots orders, the pilots valuable time was spent jiggering the preparations for the overflight, not allowing him to evaluate strategic details like why fly a plane at 30 feet if there are 100-foot trees at the end? [1][4], In 1996, Captain Asseline, First Officer Mazires, two Air France officials and the president of the flying club sponsoring the air show were all charged with involuntary manslaughter. This bug has now been corrected in later versions of the 320. It may have. Yes, Cpt. Captain Michel Asseline asserted that the altimeter read 30m (100'). 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. Told to go there, he was breaking the rules that allowed for him to break it this kind statement... 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