If you’ve ever flown within Europe on a short or medium-sized journey, there’s a good chance you’ve spent several hours inside a Airbus A320. This model has become one of the most common aircraft on the continent and is part of the daily landscape of airports and airlines. Today it is difficult to imagine European air transport without it, but there was a time when he A320 was an absolute novelty that was just beginning to be shown to the public.
One of those first public flights took place in 1988 and was intended as a demonstration for spectators, press and guests. It was also the first flight with passengers on an Airbus A320. The plane belonged to Air France and was part of the first units of the model. That presentation was to serve to show the new Airbus aircraft in a simple maneuver on a small airfield. What should have been an exhibition ended up becoming one of the most remembered episodes of the early years of the A320.
The premiere that went wrong and went down in history
The demonstration was part of an aeronautical event held at the Habsheim airfield in eastern France. Air France agreed to participate in the exhibition and took advantage of the occasion to publicly display its new Airbus A320 in the company’s colors. The plan was to perform a flyby at very low altitude on the runway with the landing gear deployed so that attendees could observe the plane before it continued its trajectory.
The flight did not depart directly from that small airfield. The plane had taken off from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and subsequently flew to Basel-Mulhouse, where a press conference was held before boarding. According to Aviation Safety Networkwhen the device took off again it had 130 passengers and six crew members on board. Among the occupants were journalists and people who had won a seat on the flight through a lottery.
In the cockpit were two commanders with extensive experience within Air France. One of them was heading the company’s training division and the other was involved in the introduction of the A320 into the airline’s fleet. Three minutes after takeoff, with the airfield already in sight, the pilot began the descent which had to place the plane at the altitude planned for the maneuver.
However, the decline continued below that level. According to data collected later in the investigation, the plane first passed about 50 feet (about 15.20 meters) and just a few seconds later it descended to about 30 feet (about 9.15 meters) above the ground. At that moment the power was increased to try to overcome the maneuver, but the reaction came too late.
At that point, the room for maneuver was minimal. As we can see in a videothe Airbus A320 continued to advance at very low altitude until skim the treetops located at the end of the Habsheim airfield. The accident ended with the plane engulfed in flames in front of those attending the aeronautical event.
After the accident, an investigation was opened in which Air France and Airbus participated together with the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile, the BEA, the French body in charge of investigating air accidents. The objective was to accurately reconstruct what happened during the maneuver and determine why the plane had ended up hitting the trees located at the end of the airfield.
In its report, the BEA pointed out several factors that, combined, explained the accident. Among them, he mentioned carrying out an overflight at a height lower than that of the obstacles present in the area, a very low speed during the maneuver and the late application of the power needed to start the comeback. According to the investigation, this combination of circumstances left the plane without sufficient margin to regain altitude before reaching the tree line.
Commander Michel Asseline rejected part of the investigation’s conclusions. In his defense, he maintained that both he and the other pilot, Pierre Mazières, had only received the flight plan on the morning of the accident. He also stated that the crew did not have maps of the aerodrome or detailed information about the configuration of the flight field where the demonstration was to take place.
Asseline also questioned the interpretation of the moment in which the comeback attempt was attempted. According to your version, the fly-by-wire control system of the A320 would have prevented the application of power and lifting the plane with the necessary speed. In addition, he went on to claim that the black box data could have been manipulated and that four seconds were missing from the recording. Despite these allegations, the case ended up going to court.
The judicial process ended with several convictions for involuntary manslaughter. Commander Michel Asseline, the first officer, two Air France officials and the president of the flying club that organized the event were found guilty. The case put an end to one of the most controversial episodes of the early years of the Airbus A320.
As time went by, the relationship between Air France and the A320 continued to develop normally. According to data from ch-aviationthe airline currently operates about 40 Airbus A320-200. It also previously flew another 61 A320-200 and 13 A320-100, the variant involved in the 1988 accident. Today the A320 remains one of the most common aircraft on short and medium-haul routes within Europe.
Images | Wikimedia Commons
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