Air France Flight 447: pitot ice on an Airbus A-330?

Anybody who’s flown very much or for very long just takes it for granted that sophisticated, modern commercial airliners would have adaquate pitot heat that would at least match the average single engine Cessna. And for the most part, they’d be right in that level of confidence.

Pitot icing may have been a problem.

My husband, the retired airline captain gets a lot of interesting email

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Best analysis of meteorological conditions that may have affected Air France, Flight 447

While looking for something else, related to the Air France tragedy, I was surprised to come across the Weather Graphics website, and some damn fine professional, scientific analysis of the weather conditions that Flight 447 may have encountered, and that may have contributed to the accident.

What I found especially revealing, although not in any way definitive was the following profile.

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