Aircraft
Air France Points Finger at Airbus for A330 Pitot Probe Failure
The lawyer representing Air France in the June 1, 2009, Airbus A330 accident case has transmitted to the investigating magistrate in France a memorandum th

The lawyer representing Air France in the June 1, 2009, Airbus A330 accident case has transmitted to the investigating magistrate in France a memorandum that endeavors to demonstrate the carrier did its best to rectify problems with its fleet’s pitot speed probes when they appeared in 2008. In the document, Airbus appears slow to answer Air France’s requests for fixing the issue. Air France Flight 447, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, crashed in the Atlantic, killing all 228 aboard.

The French daily Libération published extensive excerpts of the memorandum, and lawyer Fernand Garnault confirmed them to AIN. So far, French BEA investigators have deemed jamming of the pitot probes a contributing factor in the accident. However, they lack evidence from the flight recorders and the wreckage, which still lie somewhere on the South Atlantic seabed.