Is Flight 447s Fly-by-Wire Aircraft Technology Safe?
As investigators search for clues to why Air France Flight 447 crashed, former pilots and aviation experts are debating whether the “fly-by-wire” technology in modern aircraft makes it difficult or impossible for a pilot to control a plane in distress. The Airbus A330-200 that crashed into the Atlantic on May 31 — killing all 228 people aboard — relied on electronic rather than hydraulic or mechanical systems to control the aircraft. It’s akin to having a computer control your car, with the electronic brain doing the steering, hitting the gas and pumping the brakes as you tell it what to do. Some pilots claim the old way was better. In an emergency, they say, passengers are better off having a skilled pilot working all the systems. But planes built by Airbus, a European consortium based in Toulouse, France, give computers, not humans, the final authority on flight decisions. Airbus’ American rival, Boeing, also uses fly-by-wire systems on its newest planes, but their pilots have the ab
