Air France Flight 296Q

Air France Flight 296

Accident
Date	June 26, 1988 (1988-06-26)
Summary	Pilot error (disputed)
Site	Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport, France 47°44′58″N 7°25′34″E
Aircraft type	Airbus A320-111
Operator	Air France
Registration	F-GFKCdisaster
Passengers	130
Crew	6
Fatalities	3
Injuries	50
Survivors	133

Air France Flight 296 was a chartered flight of a newly-delivered fly-by-wire Airbus A320-111 operated by Air France. On June 26, 1988, as part of an air show it was scheduled to fly over Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport (ICAO code LFGB) at a low speed with landing gear down at an altitude of 100 feet, but instead slowly descended to 30 feet before crashing into the tops of trees beyond the runway. Three passengers died. The cause of the accident is disputed, as many irregularities were later revealed by the accident investigation. The common misconception of Air France Flight 296 being an unmanned plane flown by a computer was created after TLC released a show without researching the crash appropriately, and mistook fly-by-wire as a fully automated system, not requiring pilots. This was the first ever crash involving an Airbus A320.

Official report

The official report states the causes of the accident were:

• Very low flyover height, lower than surrounding obstacles.
• Very low speed, reduced to reach maximum possible angle of attack.
• Engines idling during flight.
• Late application of go-around power.

This combination led to the impact of the aircraft with the trees.

The Commission believed that if the descent below 100 feet was not deliberate, it may have resulted from failure to take proper account of the visual and aural information intended to give the height of the aircraft.

Disputed account

A320 operation anomalies

Third-party investigations into the crash dispute the official findings. Captain Asseline asserted that the altimeter read 30m (100'). However, while the pilots were trained in metric, this particular plane was in Imperial units. Air France didn't inform the crew of this critical change. Captain Asseline also reported that the engines didn't respond to his throttle input as he attempted to increase power. In the month prior to the accident, Airbus had posted two Operational Engineering Bulletins (OEBs) indicating anomalous behavior in the A320 aircraft. These bulletins were received by Air France, but were not sent out to pilots until after the accident:

OEB 19/1: Engine Acceleration Deficiency at Low Altitude

This OEB noted that the engines may not respond to throttle input at low altitude.

OEB 06/2: Baro-Setting Cross Check

This OEB stated that the barometric altitude indication on the A320 did not always function properly.

These malfunctions could have caused both the lack of power when the throttle was increased, and the inability of the crew to recognize the sharp sink rate as the plane passed 100 feet into the trees.

Investigation anomalies

According to French Law, the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder are to be immediately retrieved by the police in the event of an aircraft accident. However, the recorders were taken by the civil aviation authorities and held for 10 days until they were finally confiscated.

The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from which the accident report had been made showed a series of anomalies, which had led critical people to call into question their authenticity.

• The black boxes had been physically opened, and the magnetic tape had been cut. Normally the black boxes do not need to be opened to be read.
• 8 seconds of the recording are missing, 4 of those seconds are missing just before the impact, implying that the flight data recorder had stopped automatically before the impact.
• The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder are 4 seconds out of synchronization during the last part of the recording.
• There is no indication of any deceleration of the aircraft at the point of impact on the flight data recorder. The crash (survived by all but 3 passengers) should have abruptly stopped the flight data recorder.
• When the aircraft struck the trees, its wings made an aisle in the forest - a valuable source of forensic evidence. However, the trees were cut down within 3 days after the accident. The order to cut down the trees was given by the Accident Investigation Bureau. While going down, the aircraft cut the trees at a height of 11 m (36 ft) on the left and 8.5 m (28 ft) on the right side. This difference may indicate that the engines were not running at the same speed at the time of impact.

Due to these anomalies, the authenticity of the recorders were brought into question. In May of 1998, the Lausanne Institute of Police Forensic Evidence and Criminology (IPSC) determined that the recorders presented to the Court were not the ones taken from the aircraft after the accident.

Outcome

The accident and resulting fire killed 3 of the 130 passengers. Of those three, one was an adult and the other two were young children. It is believed that the adult, a female, had attempted to rescue a trapped 7 year old girl. During the evacuation, people had pushed on the back of the girl's seat, and the seat folded over on the girl who became trapped by her own seat belt. The woman was attempting to free the young girl from her seat when they were both overcome by the fire. A young boy was found impaled through the chest by a piece of wreckage.

Captain Asseline, First Officer Mazière, two Air France officials and the president of the flying club sponsoring the air show were all charged with involuntary manslaughter. All 5 were found guilty. Captain Asseline was initially sentenced to 6 months in prison along with 12 months of probation. The others were sentenced to probation. During the appeal process, Captain Asseline's sentence was increased to 10 months of imprisonment along with 10 months of probation. Asseline walked free from the court and said he would appeal to France's Supreme Court, the Cour de Cassation. According to French law, Asseline was required to submit himself to the prison system before his case could be taken up by the Supreme Court.

Dramatization

On 8 March 2010, an episode of the Mayday (Air Crash Investigation, Air Emergency) TV series featuring this accident was broadcast. The episode is entitled "Pilot vs. Plane".

See also

• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• List of airshow accidents and incidents
• Record of the crash on youtube