Friday, June 3, 2011
On June 3, 1962, an Air France Boeing 707 headed for Atlanta, Georgia crashes upon take-off at Paris Orly Airport killing 130 people onboard. At the time, it is the worst air disaster on record involving a single plane. Most of the 122 passengers are members of the Atlanta Art Association, comprising the core of the city’s arts community. They were returning home after a month-long trip to admire the art treasures of Europe. Miraculously, two crewmembers survive the crash. Six years later, an arts center is built in Atlanta in memory of the victims. Investigators later determine that the accident was caused by a technical failure in the motor that controlled, that is not realized by the pilot until the plane reached a point where it could not be saved. The Boeing 707 was used as the Air Force One plane until 1990.
Earlier this week, families of victims of another Air France crash commemorated two years since Air France flight 447 plunged into the sea on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 on board. The Airbus A330 had been en route from Rio de Janerio, Brazil to Paris. On Wednesday, ceremonies were held at the Brazilian seaside and in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, in memory of the victims. Data from the flight’s black boxes–recovered just last month from a depth of over 12,000 ft–indicated that the pilot was absent from the cockpit when the trouble began. He returned after the plane was already losing altitude, and the autopilot had disengaged. The plane stalled several times. The 32-year-old junior co-pilot pulled the plane’s nose up—a potentially fatal mistake during an airplane stall—as the aircraft became unstable. The crew never regained control..
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