Early Findings Hint Pilot Error in Airbus Crash

A preliminary investigation into the crash of an Airbus A-320 jetliner during a weekend air show in eastern France absolves the computer-controlled aircraft of technological flaws and points to pilot error, officials said today.

French Transport Minister Louis Mermaz announced the early findings at a news conference, saying, “Nothing justifies halting flights of the A-320. No available element allows us to question the proper functioning of the plane.”

An official of the General Directorate of Civil Aviation said evidence from the black-box flight recorders and television sequences of Sunday’s crash suggests the A-320 is safe for commercial use and indicates pilot error.

3 Killed, 90 Injured

The plane, carrying an estimated 136 people, plowed into woods and burned Sunday during an air show in eastern France, killing three of those aboard and injuring about 90, officials said. The pilot and co-pilot survived.

Officials had said all Airbus A-320s belonging to Air France and its domestic subsidiary Air Inter were to be grounded. But the aviation official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The airplane can continue to fly.”

The aviation official said a major factor in the preliminary finding was the extremely low altitude of the aircraft as it made a pass over the air show at the Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport near the Swiss border.

In West Germany, Bavarian Premier Franz Josef Strauss, chairman of the board of Airbus Industrie, which makes the plane, said he was convinced the crash was caused by pilot error and not by a technological failure.

Officials and experts sent by Airbus Industrie began sifting through the wreckage, studying videotapes of the crash and interviewing witnesses to determine the cause.

The aircraft’s two black-box flight recorders were recovered from the scene of the accident and are still under study, officials said.