Air France Flight 296Q was a chartered flight of a new Airbus A320-111 operated by Air Charter International for Air France.

Flight deck crew

Captain Michel Asseline, 44, had been a pilot with Air France for almost twenty years and had the following endorsements: Caravelle; Boeing 707, 727, and 737; and Airbus A300 and A310. He was a highly distinguished pilot with 10,463 flight hours. A training captain since 1979, Asseline was appointed to head the company's A320 training subdivision at the end of 1987. As Air France's technical pilot, he had been heavily involved in test flying the A320 type and had carried out maneuvers beyond normal operational limitations. Asseline had total confidence in the aircraft's computer systems.

First Officer Pierre Mazières, 45, had been flying with the airline since 1969 and had been a training captain for six years. He was endorsed on the Caravelle, Boeing 707 and 737, and had qualified as an A320 captain three months before the accident.

Flight recorders

The plane's flight recorders were found still attached in the unburnt tail section. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) continued to operate for about 1.5 seconds after the initial impact. The digital flight data decorder (DFDR) continued to operate for about one second, then recorded nonsensical data for another two seconds. Interruption of the power occurred forward of the tail section—most probably in the wheel-well area, which was heavily damaged. Asseline walked free from the court and said he would appeal to France's highest court, the Court of Cassation (). According to French law, Asseline was required to submit himself to the prison system before his case could be taken up by the Court of Cassation. In 1998, Asseline's appeal was rejected and his sentence was increased to ten months of imprisonment along with ten months of probation.

It was also claimed by the Institute of Police Forensic Evidence and Criminology, based in Switzerland, that the flight data recorders may have been switched and were not the original ones in the airplane. Airbus made a detailed rebuttal of these claims in a document published in 1991, contending that the independent investigator employed by the filmmakers made an error when synchronising the recordings based on a misunderstanding of how the "Radio Transmit" parameter on the flight data recorder functioned.

Depictions in media

The episode "Blaming the Pilot" of the TV series Survival in the Sky featured the accident.

The Discovery Channel Canada / National Geographic TV series Mayday featured the accident and subsequent investigation in a season 9 episode titled "Pilot vs. Plane" and included an interview with Captain Michel Asseline, survivors, and accident investigators.

The episode "Disastrous Descents" of the TV series Aircrash Confidential produced by WMR Productions and IMG Entertainment, featured the accident and included an interview with Captain Michel Asseline.

News coverage of the accident is briefly seen in the 2001 film Amelie when the title character is flipping through TV channels.

See also

  • List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
  • List of airshow accidents and incidents

Notes

Footnotes

  • Commission of Inquiry into the accident on June 26th<!--SIC--> 1988 in Mulhouse–Habsheim
  • Commission of Inquiry into the accident on June 26th in Mulhouse–Habsheim (Archive)