Air France 777 crew strayed close to volcano while trying to avoid storms

French investigators believe the crew of an Air France Boeing 777-200ER misinterpreted weather radar information while trying to avoid thunderstorms, losing awareness of the jet’s position before it strayed into close proximity with an African volcanic peak. It was operating in darkness from Malabo, in Equatorial Guinea, to Douala in Cameroon on 2 May 2015. The 40min flight is operated mainly over water at an altitude of 9,000ft and the eastbound flightplan involved flying south of the 13,200ft peak of Mount Cameroon. But French investigation authority BEA says the crew, after turning right after take-off from Malabo’s runway 22, deviated “significantly” to the north of the planned route in order to avoid storms. Both the captain’s and the first officer’s navigation displays were showing weather radar data. The first officer, who was flying, saw a large red echo in front of the aircraft and a second red echo to the right which appeared to be tracking alongside the aircraft. BEA says that, although the radar filters echoes reflected from the ground, they can appear similar to storm echoes on the display. The first officer did not understand the nature of the second echo and briefly switched his display to ‘terrain’ mode to check, before reverting to ‘weather’ mode about 6s later. But BEA says that the ‘terrain’ mode needs a longer period, about 8s, to fully construct the picture. Story has more details.<br/>