in 1996, twice it was two different boeing 757s that crashed, both because of problems with their pitot tubes, these are fragile instruments that when the planes are on the ground, pitot tubes get covered up to protect them, like from the weather. or if the plane is getting maintenance work or cleaned. one of those crashes in 1996 happened when a maintanence crew put tape over the pitot tube while washing the plane. that inadvertently covered pitot tube led the pilots to a
the basic technology of a pitot tube measures develvelocity, an instrument that measures speed. planes can t measure how fast they re going by rolling distance, it s important for pilots to be able to know how fast a plane is going. part of the speed sensing system on modern aircraft are these little tubes that stick out of the fuselage. and a malfunction in that speed sensing system is how we lost an air france flight in 2009, a crash of a big plane that killed 228 people. a commercial jet has disappeared. search teams are scouring thousands of miles of open atlantic ocean for any sign of an air france jet that was carries 216 passengers, a crew of 12, including two americans
text message to its base that its electrical systems were malfunctioning. eventually that air france plane s wreckage was found. we ll have more on that for you in a moment. what they were able to determine about why that plane went down is that one of those pitot tubes clogged with ice and particularly if a plane encounters with extreme weather, it s not an unusual problem. but in this case it ended up being catastrophic. the crew misunderstood what had happened. the tube told the pilot something about the speed of the plane as they did not identify as the pitot tube having iced over. they made decisions that ended up bringing that plane down into the atlantic. it s not the first time it happened and it s not just the type of plane it happened to.
on a flight last night from reyoi to paris. the flight left rio bound for paris, it s last radar contact before heading over the ocean was at 9:30. at 10:00 p.m. the plane entered an area of extreme weather. then transmitted an automatic text message to its base that its electrical systems were malfunctioning. eventually that air france pla plane s wreckage was found. we ll have more on that for you in a moment. what they were able to determine about why that plane went down is that one of those pitot tubes clogged with ice and particularly if a plane encounters with extreme weather, it s not an unusual problem. but in this case it ended up