Video
Documentary Speculation
Crash of Flight 447
Written and directed by Kenny Scott. To be broadcast in the United States on the Public Broadcasting System, Oct. 26, 2010.
The camera takes us inside the cockpit of Air France (AF) Flight 447, an Airbus A330 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009. It is night, 35,000 ft over the Atlantic Ocean, three hours into the flight. One of the pilots calmly makes a position report to Brazil air traffic control.
A thunderstorm appears on the weather radar display. The captain illuminates the “fasten seat belt” sign for the passengers and issues a brief announcement notifying them to expect turbulence. He then plans a course deviation. So far, everything is routine. After that, nothing is. What the narrator calls “an incredible chain of events” begins.
We are not, of course, peering into the actual AF 447 cockpit on that night, but a dramatic re-creation in a flight simulation tra…
