On March 5, pilots of Air France flight AF11 reported a serious issue with commands on final approach to Paris.
The Boeing 777 (reg. F-GSQJ) was on approach to runway 26L when the crew reported an issue. Pilots said ‘the plane didn’t respond to the commands’ and started to deviate to its left.
The Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) has released the final report:
The crew of the Boeing 777 registered F-GSQJ, operated by Air France, were carrying out scheduled flight AF011 between New York John F. Kennedy International airport (United States) and Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport on 5 April 2022. The aeroplane took off at 01:16. The captain, in the left seat, was the PM, and the co-pilot, in the right seat, was the PF.
During the ILS approach to runway 26L, without external visual references, in manual flight, the PF expressed his surprise about the aeroplane’s bank angle and flew a missed approach. At this time, the aeroplane was within 0.2 dots left of the localizer with a bank angle of 6°.
The two pilots then simultaneously made inputs on the controls for 53 s. The pitch controls were desynchronized for 12 s due to opposing forces.
Two brief episodes of roll control desynchronization were also observed. After recovering control of the flight path, the crew carried out a new approach to runway 27R without further incident.