A crash that aviation enthusiasts will never forget about

Only 3 deaths despite the fire that engulfed the plane when it crashed. One was hero Marie-Françoise Froesch who reached the exit but turned back to help a child trapped under a collapsed seat. Tragically they both were overcome by fumes and perished. A good opportunity to remember her and the other two victims.

A complete idiot pilot, who wanted to show off how cool he was. Schettino of the aviation world.

It's still hard to believe there were only 3 fatalities that day.

Plane's new fly-by-wire system believed it was landing and wouldn't allow the pilot to pull up. Pilot error was blamed as is often the case in major aviation accidents, as the true cause would have ruined Airbus

Old Boeing joke about this incident: What's the difference between a chainsaw and an Airbus 320? About a thousand trees an hour.

Skill issue. Tex Johnston did a "barrel roll"(which was actually a chandelle) in the Dash 80 with no issues. Alvin "Tex" Johnston, the Boeing test pilot who famously barrel-rolled the Boeing 367-80 (the 707 prototype, nicknamed "Dash 80") during a 1955 demonstration.  What does this have to do with anything? Nothing, I just wanted to mention Dash 80.

Welcome to fly-by-wire with software written by non-pilots.

I remember this live. This is when Airbus came out and said how much more safe their planes were, compared to Boeing. This was the demonstration flight to prove their statement ... 🤦‍♂️ I believe the cause was the redundant computers fought over whether they were landing or not.

It’s not often a pilot ends up in prison, but this was one of those accidents. Too low and too slow. Very lucky it was only three fatalities from 136 people on board.

@MenTourPilot covered it in his channel.

The aeroplane's computer did not accept the pilots' order to climb because it deemed their decision dangerous. Now the question is: who is ready for AI pilots?

@grok can you go into more detail about this crash please?

This is Air France Flight 296Q, an Airbus A320-111 on a low-speed demonstration flyby at the Habsheim Air Show in France on June 26, 1988. The newly delivered jet (F-GFKC) was doing a slow pass at ~100 ft with gear down and flaps out for ~136 passengers (mostly journalists/guests). It clipped trees at the end of the short grass runway, crashed into woods, and caught fire. Official cause: pilot error (misjudged altitude, late go-around). 3 died, 50+ injured. The video became infamous due to debates over early fly-by-wire systems.

No, the A320 was flown manually for the demo low pass (gear down, flaps out, alpha-floor protection disabled per plan, FO handling manual thrust). Autopilot was not engaged or the issue. Official BEA report: no mechanical/electronic failures. Cause was pilot actions—too low (~30 ft vs planned 100 ft), too slow (reducing to max AoA), engines at idle, late go-around. Alpha protection then limited nose-up to prevent stall; engines spooled normally (~5 sec to TO/GA per DFDR/CVR). Captain Asseline disputes it, blaming fly-by-wire override and possible recorder issues. Both views are documented, but the investigation cleared the aircraft systems.

@Mathway_Gordon @JosephWilliamCr @airmainengineer What is fly-by-wire ?

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This is how you do show off a new plane to industry executives:

I had heard that it was selected automatically land ie like using ILS and the plane went into landing mode, the pilot recognised the mistake too late to correct it as you actually hear the engines throttling up ( but gobbling up trees instead of air)

This was a demonstration flight with only flight crew on board. The engine control levers were stuck in auto-throttle and would not increase power to climb.

I see the problem there, the pilot went down instead of up.

There was a reason why the tickets were free of charge... 🫣

In aviation, we have done several case studies on this crash. Fascinating stuff

La catastrophe d'Habsheim près de Mulhouse. Triste moment. Pensée aux victimes.

For everyone arguing.

First three crashes were the air India, this one and air inter in the alps. We used to call it the Davey Crockett. Cause it climbed mountains, cut tees and killed Indians.

I mean no disrespect. I grew up around aviation. My dad was a pilot, my mum a stewardess. & I’ve seen an air crash up close and personal. I find this stuff traumatising, not just my feelings for the poor people aboard, my imaginings for the parents I thought might not come home

this was the oh no oh no oh no incident. i remember it vividently

I think I was watching that on TV as a live broadcast air show.

Paris airshow, the day the computer decided to fight the captain.

Paris Air Show crash! Airbus was showing off its brand new plane to airshow fans and aircraft buyers when this crash happened! Not a very good selling point for the customers and passengers alike!🤔✈🙄

After all these years there’s still a doubt about a 100% responsibility of the captain..

Flying for the photographers is not something fly by wire designers anticipate. Recall similar confusion (landing vs flying) during F22 testing.

The pilot can talk all he wants about the computer, but, he descended too low

It's miracle that only 3 passengers died out of 136 people abroad.

El primer vuelo del A320. Mulhouse.

He was supposed to invert 🤦🏾‍♂️

Fly by wire in its infancy.

Just saw the Mentor Pilot analysis of this a couple of weeks ago.