France A321 near Paris on Apr 27th 2025, degradation of flight controls to direct law

Last Update: November 10, 2026 / 19:22:22 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Apr 27, 2025

Classification
Incident

Airline
Air France

Flight number
AF-1749

Departure
Malaga, Spain

Destination
Paris Charles de Gaulle, France

Aircraft Registration
F-GMZC

Aircraft Type
Airbus A321

ICAO Type Designator
A321

An Air France Airbus A321-100, registration F-GMZC performing flight AF-1749 from Malaga,SP (Spain) to Paris Charles de Gaulle (France), was descending towards Paris when the crew received a "F/CTL Stabilizer Jam". The crew declared PAN PAN, the crew used manual trim, the flight control law changed to alternate. Upon extending the landing gear the flight controls reverted to Direct Law. The aircraft continued for a safe landing on Charles de Gaulle's runway 08L.

The French BEA rated the occurrence an incident and opened an investigation.

The aircraft remained on the ground in Paris until May 5th 2025, then performed a test flight before returning to service.

On Nov 10th 2026 the BEA released their final report in French (an English version will be released in due time) concluding the probable causes of the incident were:

incorrect application of the F/CTL Stabilizer JAM procedure, inappropriate use of trim control in flight and landing with elevators close to the pitch-up stop. Following factors may have contributed:

- lack of training in ALTERNATE mode with only manual trim control available

- lack of clarity in the ECAM F/CTL STABILIZER JAM procedure, particularly for the item "TRIM FOR NEUTRAL ELEV" as displayed

- the pilot monitorings inadequate supervision at a time when workload had intensified

A misunderstanding of the ECAM F/CTL STABILIZER JAM procedure probably led the pilot flying to rely on a more familiar course of action regarding the manual use of the trim tab, namely that set out in the F/CTL DIRECT LAW procedure in DIRECT mode. The semantic similiarity between the item "MAN PITCH TRIM ... USE" in the latter and "MAN PITCH TRIM ... CHECK", which was displayed to the crew during the incident, was such as to foster confusion.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Apr 27, 2025

Classification
Incident

Airline
Air France

Flight number
AF-1749

Departure
Malaga, Spain

Destination
Paris Charles de Gaulle, France

Aircraft Registration
F-GMZC

Aircraft Type
Airbus A321

ICAO Type Designator
A321

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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