Pilots on an Air France Boeing 777 traveling from New York to Paris suddenly and mysteriously lost control of their plane as it was approaching for a landing at Charles de Gaulle Airport, with gripping audio depicting the pilots struggle to avoid a crash, the New York Post reports.
The audio (which can be heard after the fold) starts with routine chatter as Air France Flight 11 but changes to the grunts and noises from the cockpit as the pilots at first don’t understand what happened, and then fight the unresponsive controls.
A few thousand feet from the ground, the pilots were able to regain control of the aircraft and do a fly-by of the runaway to re-enter the landing cycle. The plane landed the second time safely.
Passengers reported feeling three jolts as the plane seemed to have a controlled descent in a landing pattern, but then the plane circled back, startling some passengers.
“We were almost on the runway when the plane came up extremely quickly,” said the 75-year-old woman, identified in the newspaper Le Parisien by her first name, Michèle.
Pilots could not talk to the ATC as they were dealing with the issue, we can hear them fighting with the commands https://t.co/PKzwgluXdV
— AIRLIVE (@airlivenet) April 5, 2022