The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)
It's kind of amazing how many of these accidents can come down to the pilots forgetting the most basic things.<p>In this case, ultimately, the pilot and the co-pilot were exerting opposite controls. One to pull up, one to push the nose down. In a stall you push the nose down to gain aerodynamic lift. That's like Flying 101. But I guess when you panic, the natural instinct of wanting to pull up kicks in when you're rapidly losing altitude. Still, training?<p>I saw another one the other day: Ethiopian Air Flight 961 [1] from 1996. This accidently ultimately came down to a single switch being on: manual cabin pressurization. This was on because a pilot reported an error in a previous flight and maintenance were trying to replicate it. The pilots (and passengers) passed out from hypoxia and didn't put on their oxygen masks. Again, not putting on your mask? Pretty basic. Also, Flying 101. If you lose (or don't have) pressurization, drop your altitutde. You get below 8000 feet and you're fine.<p>There was an error but it wasn't ignored and it wasn't entirely obvious, causing revisions to be made. Also, hypoxia can impair judgement very quickly. But why keep climbing when something is wrong?<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961</a>