LE BOURGET, France - A combination of faulty sensors and mistakes by inadequately trained pilots caused an Air France jet to plunge into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing all 228 people aboard in the airline's deadliest ever crash.
French investigators are urging better instruction for pilots on flying manually at high altitudes and stricter plane certification rules as a result of a three-year investigation into what happened to Flight 447.
Airbus, manufacturer of the A330 plane, says it is working to improve speed sensors known as pitot tubes and making other efforts to avoid such accidents.
Air France stressed the equipment troubles and insisted the pilots "acted in line with the information provided by the cockpit instruments and systems. ... The reading of the various data did not enable them to apply the appropriate action."