French air safety officials, BEA, have launched an investigation into the cause of the loss of control of an Air France Boeing 777, which led to two pilots canceling a landing at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Air France Flight AF011 from New York landed safely on its second attempt on Tuesday morning following pilots informed air traffic controllers that the plane did not respond when it approached the runway the first time.
The French Air Accident Analysis and Studies Office described the accident as “serious” and said on Twitter on Wednesday that it was analyzing flight data.
The BEA noted that “the instability of the controls inside the aircraft in the final stages of the flight, in addition to the flight stability and security devices, caused the aircraft to be subjected to vibrations.”
The plane did not respond to commands and began to veer left, AirLive.net reported, while a recording was posted on the site chronicling the perilous moments when the pilots encountered difficulties with control.
In the recording, one of the pilots can be heard moaning and breathing heavily as the cockpit alarms ring. “Wait! Whoa, whoa!” the pilot said during the recorded clip. “I’ll call you back! I’ll call you back!”.
A few moments later, a pilot said, “The plane is tilting too much.” The air traffic controller replied, “I saw it on the radar, it swayed to the left.”
She added that following the failure of the first attempt to land from an altitude of 1,200 feet, the plane was sent back to a holding area at an altitude of 4,000 feet before descending normally on the second attempt.
This comes as Boeing works to rebuild confidence in its safety culture following two fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 with its 737 Max jetliner.
US investigators are also participating in an investigation into the accident A China Eastern plane crashed last month of a former 737.
