Facts are still emerging about what exactly happened in the final moments leading up to the crash of Air France flight 447 in 2009, but one new piece of information has recently emerged–it seems the Captain was not traveling solo:
In the final chaotic moments before Air France flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, it took the captain of the aircraft, who was on a scheduled break, more than a minute to return to the cockpit, despite his two co-pilots’ frantic calls for help, black box recordings showed.
Although it was never revealed what delayed Capt. Marc Dubois, two independent sources told ABC News that the 58-year-old veteran Air France pilot was traveling socially with an off-duty Air France flight attendant named Veronique Gaignard.
Ah those French men…
Actually, I do not read to much into this. One minute is a long time, but the A330-200 is a big aircraft. If the Captain was sleeping in the rear crew rest, I can see why he took awhile to get to the cockpit, especially if there were FAs and passengers milling about in the aisles. The aircraft also was free-falling when he was summoned to the cockpit–that ostensibly slowed him down as well.
So really this story it seems like much ado about nothing. But that won’t stop the innuendo.
This article and the general coverage of this story has been pretty insensitive in my opinion.
yeah, I’ll agree with Ray- I feel this post was unnecessary and didn’t really contribute positively to learning more about the accident that occurred.
@Eddie–I think you miss Ray’s point. I briefly blogged about this story to ridicule the media for even reporting on this baseless innuendo, stating, “So really this story it seems like much ado about nothing. But that won’t stop the innuendo.”
I felt it necessary to point out that having a girlfriend onboard likely contributed nothing to the accident and to suggest otherwise, as many media outlets did including the article I referenced, was in poor taste.
Idiotic story from the media…the plane was in free fall and probably buffeting wildly!!! What else does anyone need to know??