Pilots of an Air France Airbus which crashed into the Atlantic killing 228 people were not adequately trained for the emergency, a British coroner has said.
North Yorkshire coroner Michael Oakley was speaking at the inquest into the deaths of two British men in the 2009 disaster.
Arthur Coakley, 61, of Whitby and Neil Warrier, 48, from London, both died.
The Airbus A330 crash, during a flights from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009 was blamed on technical failure and pilot errors.
Recording a narrative verdict on the men, who both died from multiple injuries, the coroner said there had been a series of “systematic failures”.
These included a blockage of the aircraft’s pitot tubes, which are used to measure fluid pressures, as well as human error, the BBC reported.
“[There was] a lack of comprehension of the aircraft’s situation between the pilots during the flight,” Oakley said.
“The pilots were not adequately trained to handle the aircraft safely in the particular high-altitude emergency situation that night.
“The air disaster highlights serious public concern of whether pilots are overly dependent on technology and are not retaining the skills required to properly fly complex commercial aircraft.”
The official report into the crash by the French aviation authority highlighted faults with the air-speed sensors on the aircraft which had confused the pilots, but it also said they had made several errors.