An Air France jet was just seconds from nose-diving to disaster when the autopilot failed during extreme turbulence.
The mechanism malfunctioned as the plane hit a storm at 35 000ft. The Airbus, with up to 375 people on board, then climbed sharply to 38 000ft losing speed as it did so.
Its speed dropped to just three knots from stalling.
A newspaper report into the drama, which took place on a flight from the Venezuelan capital Caracas to Paris in July, said the incident was “comparable in every way” to the 2009 crash of Air France flight AF447 from Rio to Paris, which killed all 228 people on board.
The July flight averted disaster thanks to a reduction in the turbulence and a rapid response by the crew, according to a report in the French daily Le Figaro, which said it had seen a report into the alert.
France’s BEA air accident investigation bureau confirmed it had opened an inquiry into the latest incident.
It blamed pilot error for the 2009 crash and said a junior co-pilot made “successive mistakes” as he battled with the controls.
But Air France disputed the findings and blamed a failure of equipment in the Airbus jet. - Daily Mail