The air is thick, wet with the chill of a January night. Inside the cockpit of Air Inter Flight 148, the crew is focused, their eyes scanning the glow of the instrument panels as they begin their final approach into Strasbourg. It's a routine flight, a simple VOR DME procedure through the rugged, cloud-shrouded terrain of the Vosges mountains in eastern France. But tonight, routine will become anything but.

As the Airbus A320 descends, its automated systems are set. The pilots believe they have commanded a standard, gentle descent of 800 feet per minute, perfectly aligned with the glide path of the runway ahead. But the plane is plummeting. Unseen by the crew, the jet is diving at a catastrophic 3,300 feet per minute, four times faster than it should be. With no visual reference, the crew is utterly unaware of their fatal error until it is far too late.

In the final terrifying seconds, the automatic voice alarm sounds, but it is not enough. With a thunderous impact, the ghost of Mont Sainte-Odile claims its prize, leaving a trail of fire and twisted metal in its wake. How did a state-of-the-art Airbus A320 fly so far astray? And what hidden flaw in the relationship between man and machine could lead to such a deadly miscalculation? Today, we investigate the Flight Files of Air Inter Flight 148.

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Intro Music by Paschimee Studio from Pixabay

Air Inter 148, Airbus A320, CFIT, Mont Sainte-Odile, Pilot Error, Mode Confusion, GPWS, Aviation Safety, BEA, Controlled Flight Into Terrain, France

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