Air France Flight 447 was a scheduled international transatlantic passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, France, that crashed into the mid-Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009, killing all 228 passengers and crew on board. The incident, which occurred on an Airbus A330, happened because inconsistent airspeed indications and resulting miscommunication between the pilots led to an unrecoverable stall. The Brazilian Navy recovered the first major wreckage and two bodies from the sea within five days of the crash. The aircraft's flight recorders were not recovered from the ocean floor until May 2011, nearly two years after the accident.
France's Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety final report, released at a press conference on 5 July 2012, concluded that the aircraft suffered temporary inconsistencies between the airspeed measurements—likely resulting from ice crystals obstructing the aircraft's pitot tubes—which caused the autopilot to disconnect. The crew reacted incorrectly to this, causing the aircraft to enter an aerodynamic stall which the pilots failed to correct. The accident is the deadliest in the history of Air France, as well as the deadliest aviation accident involving the Airbus A330.
On 21 May 2026, Airbus and Air France were both found guilty of corporate manslaughter. Each company was sentenced to pay the maximum fine of €225,000 ($261,112).
The aircraft involved was a four-year-old Airbus A330-203, with serial number 0660, registered as F-GZCP. It was delivered to the airline in April 2005. The aircraft was powered by two General Electric CF6-80E1A3 engines with a maximum thrust of 304.8 or 268.7 kN (68,530 or 60,400 lbf) (take-off/max continuous), with a cruising speed of Mach 0.82 to Mach 0.86 (470 to 500 kn; 880 to 920 km/h; 540 to 570 mph), at 35,000 feet (11,000 m) of altitude and a range of 12,500 km (6,700 nmi; 7,800 mi). The aircraft underwent a major overhaul on 16 April 2009, at the time of the accident it had accumulated about 18,870 flying hours. It was the last Airbus A330 delivered to the airline.
The aircraft was carrying 216 passengers, 3 aircrew, and 9 cabin crew in two cabins of service. Among the 216 passengers were 126 men, 82 women and 8 children (including 1 infant).
There were three pilots on the flight:
The pilot in command, 58-year-old Captain Marc Dubois (pilot not flying, PNF) had joined Air France in February 1988 from rival French domestic carrier Air Inter (which later merged into Air France), and had 10,988 flying hours, of which 6,258 were as captain, including 1,700 hours on the Airbus A330; he had carried out 16 rotations in the South America sector since arriving in the A330/A340 division in 2007.
The cruise relief co-pilot in the left seat, 37-year-old First Officer David Robert (PNF) had joined Air France in July 1998 and had 6,547 flying hours, of which 4,479 hours were on the Airbus A330; he had carried out 39 rotations in the South America sector since arriving in the A330/A340 division in 2002. Robert had graduated from École nationale de l'aviation civile, one of the elite Grandes Écoles, and had transitioned from a pilot to a management job at the airline's operations center. He served as a pilot on the flight to maintain his flying credentials.
The co-pilot in the right seat, 32-year-old First Officer Pierre-Cédric Bonin (pilot flying, PF) had joined Air France in October 2003 and had 2,936 flight hours, of which 807 hours were on the Airbus A330; he had carried out five rotations in the South America sector since arriving in the A330/A340 division in 2008. His wife Isabelle, a physics teacher, was also on board.
There were 9 cabin crew members on the flight:
Senior Purser Anne Grimout (49), 25 years' service, Purser Françoise Sonnic (54), 28 years' service, and Purser Maryline Messaud (45), 20 years' service.
Flight Attendants Laurence Desmots (44), 18 years' service, Stéphanie Schoumacker (38), 13 years' service, Sébastien Vedovati (33), 11 years' service, Clara Amado (31), 8 years' service, Carole Guillaumont (31), 5 years' service, and Lucas Gagliano (23), 2 years' service.
Of the 12 crew members (including aircrew and cabin crew), 11 were French and 1 was Brazilian.
The majority of passengers were French, Brazilian, or German citizens. The passengers included business and holiday travelers.
Air France established a crisis center at Terminal 2D for the 60 to 70 relatives and friends who arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport to pick up arriving passengers, but many of the passengers on Flight 447 were connecting to other destinations worldwide. In the days that followed, Air France contacted close to 2,000 people who were related to, or friends of, the victims.
On 20 June 2009, Air France announced that each victim's family would be paid roughly €17,500 in initial compensation.
Prince Pedro Luiz of Orléans-Braganza, third in succession to the abolished throne of Brazil and grandnephew of Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg. He had dual Brazilian–Belgian citizenship. He was returning home to Luxembourg from a visit to his relatives in Rio de Janeiro.
Giambattista Lenzi, member of the Regional Council of Trentino-Alto Adige.