The final words of three terrified pilots on board an Air France jet which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean have emerged today for the first time.
In a scandal which is set to shock all those who work or travel on commercial flights, they reveal absolute panic and ignorance among those in charge of the aircraft.
The exchange is from the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) on Flight 447, which went down in a tropical storm with the loss of 228 lives while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in June 2009.
'Damn-it! We're going to crash. It can't be true,' says one co-pilot.
'But, what's happening?' another replies, seconds before the Airbus 330 plunged into the water, killing everyone on board including five Britons and three Irish doctors.
Until now only selected excerpts from the conversation between 37-year-old David Robert, Pierre-Cedric Bonin, 32, and Marc Dubois, the 58-year-old captain of the plane, have been released.
Air accident investigators kept the rest hidden, saying they did not want to upset families of the pilots lost in the worst crash in the company's history.
But Jean-Pierre Otelli, a veteran French flying instructor, has now written a book in which he lays the dramatic moments bare.
Rio-Paris Crash: A Collection of Pilot Errors describes how the men failed to deal with a loss of lift.
Inexperience? One of the plane's flight data recorders on the ocean bed. Recordings made in the cockpit have revealed the two co-pilots were too panicked to tell the captain what was happening
Inexperience? One of the plane's flight data recorders on the ocean bed. Recordings made in the cockpit have revealed the two co-pilots were too panicked to tell the captain what was happening
Mr Dubois, who had 11,000 flying hours behind him, was on a routine break when it happened, leaving his two subordinates in charge.
'So, is he coming?' Mr Robert is heard muttering, even swearing in frustration when Mr Dubois takes a full minute to get back to the cockpit.
'Hey, what are you...' Mr Dubois is heard to say when he gets back, to which Mr Robert replies: 'What's happening? I don't know, I don't know what's happening.'
Instead of lowering the plane's nose to deal with the stall - as they should have done according to normal procedures - they raised it.
Mr Bonin is heard saying: 'I've got a problem I don't have vertical speed. I don't have any indication,' before his captain replies: 'I don't know, but right now we're descending.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
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