Air France Jet Was Moving Too Slowly

Airbus to give thrust guidelines today
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 4, 2009 9:41 AM CDT
Air France Jet Was Moving Too Slowly
People stand outside the Notre-Dame cathedral where an ecumenical church service for relatives and families of the passengers of Air France's flight 447.   (AP Photo/Bob Edme, Pool)

The crashed Air France jet was flying too slowly, insiders have told Le Monde. Airbus, which built the plane, plans to notify airlines of the right thrust levels for flights in bad weather today, the Daily Telegraph says. Whether speed could be at fault for the jet’s series of glitches is “not clear,” says Reuters; messages from the plane suggest two computers failed.

Another pilot flying over the Atlantic said he saw a sudden “intense flash of white light that took a downward, vertical trajectory and disappeared in six seconds,” Spain’s El Mundo noted.
(More disaster stories.)

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