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Edition: U.S. Article Comments (0) Slideshow Video Full Focus Photos of the week Our top photos from the past week. Full Article Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Air France crash sparks pilot mystery 27 May 2011 U.N. sees risk of crisis of confidence in dollar 25 May 2011 Palin welcome in Arizona neighborhood, media less so 27 May 2011 Exclusive: Hackers breached U.S. defense contractors 27 May 2011 New Idol McCreery aiming for Billboard Hot 100 top 10 27 May 2011 Discussed 129 As hours tick by, ”Judgment Day” looks a dud 105 Broadcaster silent as Judgment Day hours tick by 94 Obama departs for Europe trip, explores Irish roots Watched GM pulls the plug Fri, May 27 2011 Scientists revive ancient spider in stunning 3D detail Tue, May 24 2011 Deadly Missouri tornado captured on video Mon, May 23 2011 Air France crash sparks pilot mystery Tweet Share this By Tim Hepher and Gerard Bon PARIS (Reuters) - A French airliner plunged out of control for four minutes before crashing into the Atlantic in 2009, investigators said, in a report raising questions about how crew handled a "stall alarm" blaring out... Email Print Factbox Last moments of flight AF447 before crash Fri, May 27 2011 Related News Airbus says preliminary crash info "significant" Fri, May 27 2011 Analysis & Opinion Whatâ€™s causing the tornado tsunami In to Africa: The road more travelled Related Topics World » Aerospace & Defense » Related Video Air France crash: early findings 1:29am EDT 1 / 2 The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), one of two flight recorders from the Rio-Paris Air France flight which crashed in 2009, is carrying to be displayed for the media before a news conference at the BEA headquarters in Le Bourget, northern Paris, May 12, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Charles Platiau By Tim Hepher and Gerard Bon PARIS | Sat May 28, 2011 2:09am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - A French airliner plunged out of control for four minutes before crashing into the Atlantic in 2009, investigators said, in a report raising questions about how crew handled a "stall alarm" blaring out in the cabin. Information gleaned from black boxes, and recovered almost two years after the disaster killed 228 people, confirmed that speed readings in the Airbus cockpit had gone haywire, believed to be linked to the icing of speed sensors outside the jet. As Air France pilots fought for control, the doomed A330 dropped 38,000 feet, rolling left to right, its engines flat out but its wings unable to grab enough air to keep flying. The plane crashed on June 1, 2009, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Black boxes stopped recording at 0214 GMT. France's BEA crash investigation agency said in a detailed chronology of the crash that commands from the controls of the 32-year-old junior pilot on board had pulled the nose up as the aircraft became unstable and generated an audible stall warning. Aviation industry sources told Reuters that this action went against the normal procedures which call for the nose to be lowered in response to an alert that the plane was about to lose lift or, in technical parlance, 'stall'. This type of aerodynamic stall is nothing to do with a stall in the engines, both of which kept working as crew requested. "A stall is the moment at which a plane stops flying and starts falling," said David Learmount, operations and safety editor at the British aviation publication Flight International. A top aircraft industry safety consultant said the standard guidance in the Airbus pilot manual called in this event for the pilot to lower the nose by pushing the control stick forward. "The BEA is now going to have to analyze and get to bottom of how crew handled this event," said Paul Hayes, safety director at Ascend Aviation, a UK-based aviation consultancy. "The big question in my mind is why did the pilot flying (the aircraft) appear to continue to pull the nose up," he said. French investigators said the emergency began with the autopilot disengaging itself two and a half hours into the flight and the junior pilot, who had been in control at take-off, picked up manually and saying "I have control." The autopilot appears to have responded to a loss of reliable airspeed information. This was accompanied moments later by the disembodied voice of a recorded "stall" alert. It is what happened next that is likely to fuel most theories on what preceded the crash, but Air France and its main pilots union insisted faulty speed probes were the root cause. In a passage likely to attract particular scrutiny, the BEA said the pilot "maintained" the nose-up command despite fresh stall warnings 46 seconds into the four-minute emergency. "The inputs made by the pilot flying were mainly nose-up," the report added. The Airbus jet climbed 3,000 feet to 38,000 feet despite the crew having decided earlier against a climb, and then began a dramatic descent, with the youngest pilot handing control to the second most senior pilot a minute before impact. The captain returned after "several attempts" to call him back to the cockpit but was not at the controls in the final moments, according to information gleaned from black boxes. By the time the 58-year-old returned, just over a minute into the emergency, the aircraft was in serious trouble: plunging at 10,000 feet a minute with its nose pointing up 15 degrees and at too high an angle to the air to recapture lift. The BEA did not provide extracts of the transcript for the last minute before the jet hit the water with its nose up. It promised a fuller interim report which could say more about the causes of the crash in July. SLIGHT TURBULENCE AHEAD Relatives of victims had waited long for the report. "It's very emotional to see the unrolling minute by minute or second by second at some points of what happened," said John Clemes, vice president of the families' support group. "You automatically think of your family member and how they were living through this. It's the events that caused the deaths of 228 people so it's traumatic and moving." The BEA report put to rest speculation that the pilots recklessly flew into the center of an equatorial storm cell. Pilots had decided calmly to alter course slightly to avoid turbulence shortly before the crisis. But the pilot did tell flight attendants to prepare for a "little bit of turbulence." "In two minutes we should enter an area where it'll move about more than at the moment; you should watch out," he told cabin staff. "I'll call you back as soon as we're out of it." Air France said the crew had displayed a "totally professional attitude" and stayed committed to the end. The crew's response to stall warnings contrasts with advice to pilots contained in an Airbus training seminar in October last year, according to a document obtained by Reuters. In large red capital letters, the slide presentation says that in the event of a stall warning, pilots should "APPLY NOSE DOWN PITCH CONTROL TO REDUCE AOA (ANGLE OF ATTACK)." Two aviation industry sources said the drill in force at the time of the accident was to apply full thrust and reduce the pitch attitude of the aircraft, which means lowering the nose. Later guidance calls for pilots to push the nose down and adjust thrust as necessary, they said, asking not to be named. Despite the apparent anomaly, aviation experts said it was early and most probably far-fetched to blame the miscommands -- so basic one compared it to hitting the accelerator instead of the brake when facing a car collision -- on a conscious error. "One of the weird things about this is that the aircraft was definitely stalled, because the crew had had a stall warning, but they were not doing anything to recover from the stall," Learmount said. "It was almost as if they didn't know the aircraft was stalled, because they could have recovered." The report and a more detailed follow-up are eagerly awaited by lawyers representing victims' families, but cannot be used in many courts. A separate French criminal probe is also under way. (Editing by Ralph Boulton) World Aerospace & Defense Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story directly or with relevant tangential information. We try to block comments that use offensive language, all capital letters or appear to be spam, and we review comments frequently to ensure they meet our standards. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. 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