COMMENTS:
That whole scenario was crazy right from the start.
“Maximum attack angle” Low speed at 100' feet?? What was
Airbus thinking and the pilots??
What astonishes me to this day is that at no point did anyone involved
in Air France's planning of the exhibition flight, including the flight crew,
bother asking Airbus themselves - and their test pilots in particular -
what their own exhibition flight parameters were. As I recall, Airbus's
standard procedure was to perform a low-speed fly past demonstrating
alpha protection somewhere between 600ft and 1,000ft
(depending upon conditions), then circle back and perform a high-speed
flypast at a lower altitude. If Air France had presented their intention to
combine the low-speed alpha demonstration with a low-altitude flypast to
Airbus, the likelihood is that Airbus would have done everything in their
power to persuade Air France not to go ahead - even Airbus's own test
pilots wouldn't dream of cutting margins that close.
And that's without even touching on the fact they had passengers on board.
136 lives lost because of many bad decisions. Airshow you never have
passengers on board.