Air France 447 plummeted 38,000 feet

The recently discovered wreckage of Air France 447 has shed new light onto the plane's and passengers' final moments. The flight which departed on May 31, 2009 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was heading for its destination of Paris, France. The mystery that has surrounded the cause of the crash is no more, as flight recorder data has been revealed.

The recordings indicate that before making its fatal plunge into the Atlantic Ocean, Air France 447 stalled roughly 38,000 feet in the air and then proceeded to free-fall from that distance. The data shows that the fall lasted approximately three minutes and thirty seconds before contact was made with the ocean surface. During the fall the plane reached speeds of over 100 mph's.

Reports indicate that nearly ten minutes after then captain announced he would be taking a rest break the emergency began. Another co-pilot stepped into to take the captain's place while he rested; during this time a left turn was executed to avoid an oncoming set of storms. Within minutes the autopilot system shut its self-off and a co-pilot could be heard saying "I have the controls," soon after the captain returned to the cockpit.

The pilot took the jet into an ascent of 3,000 feet where it finally reached 38,000 feet off the ground. When the jet began its disastrous stall the captain continued to try and pull the nose up, which goes against a pilot's training. During a stall a pilot is trained to lower the nose so airflow increases over the aircraft's wings.

A little over two hours after Air France flight 447 departed, it began its doomed plummet into the ocean below where it reached its resting point 12,800 feet below the surface for nearly two years. The crash claimed the lives of all those aboard, a total of 228 people. The French BEA (aviation accident investigation agency) continues to investigate what caused the errors to occur and what can be done to prevent such tragic accidents in the future.