A343, en-route, mid North Atlantic Ocean, 2011

A343, en-route, mid North Atlantic Ocean, 2011

Summary

On 22 July 2011 an Air France A340-300 en route over the North Atlantic at FL350 in night IMC encountered moderate turbulence following "inappropriate use of the weather radar" which led to an overspeed annunciation followed by the aircraft abruptly pitching up and gaining over 3000 feet in less than a minute before control was regained and it was returned to the cleared level. The Investigation concluded that "the incident was due to inadequate monitoring of the flight parameters, which led to the failure to notice AP disengagement and the level bust, following a reflex action on the controls.”

Description

On 22 July 2011 an Airbus A340-300 being operated by Air France on a scheduled passenger flight from Caracas to Paris CDG at FL350 in night Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) encountered moderate turbulence which led to an overspeed annunciation which was followed by the aircraft abruptly pitching up and a gain of over 3000 feet in less than a minute before it was returned to the previous cruise level. There were no injuries to any of the 284 occcupants. It appears that the relief First Officer was not present in the flight deck during the event.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA). Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data was available but Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) data had been overwritten preventing any evaluation of the Crew Resource Management aspects of the event including the “lack of monitoring of the basic parameters and the flight path” which the Investigation eventually found had played a major part in the event. Both operating crew were experienced on type.

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