The Flight

Air France Flight 447.

The pilot flew a functional Aeroplane in to stall conditions and refused to give up control to the senior pilot, who figured out what was wrong but couldn't rectify it due to the other pilot's actions.

The only issue with the plane was unreliable speed readings due to iced up pitot tubes (which measure airspeed), this caused the autopilot to disengage and the pilot took over. The senior pilot was resting at this stage with the third pilot in the other seat.

Initially struggling to keep the plane steady in turbulence, he repeatedly inputted nose up commands until such a point that the aircraft stalled and began losing altitude.

With both pilots trying to work out the issue they eventually recalled the senior pilot, who identified they were at a too steep angle of attack. He then took over the controls from the other pilot and tried to regain control.

But the pilot who was initially flying kept on giving nose up commands and didnt relinquish control, which overrode the correct commands the senior pilot was trying to give.

This carried on until the plane impacted the ground, despite the senior pilot commanding the other to give up the stick.

Unlinke the Germanwings crash from a few years ago, this was not pilot suicide. This was one pilot utterly failing to grasp what was going on and sealing everyone's fate by not moving aside.