“I don’t have control of the aircraft at all!” “We’ve totally lost control of the plane. We don’t understand at all… We’ve tried everything.” Those were the words that filled the cockpit of Air France Flight 447. The plane had stalled, and it was hurling towards the Atlantic Ocean below.

The day was 1 June 2009, and Flight 447 was a scheduled passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France. When it crashed, all 228 people on board died, making it one of the deadliest plane crashes in history. The wreckage was only discovered two years later, and the findings were absolutely heartbreaking. The investigation concluded that the initiating factor was the formation of ice crystals around the pitot tubes, which led to inconsistencies in airspeed measurements. Pitot tubes are small measuring devices that determine the flow velocity of fluids – in this case, air – thereby commonly acting as speedometers on planes. They are usually located outside the aircraft, beneath the cockpit. Due to the freezing of one of these tubes, the airspeed indicators in the cockpit failed, and the pilots reacted incorrectly to the situation. This led to the plane entering an aerodynamic stall from which they did not recover.

Given the severity of this accident, it has been extensively researched, and numerous lessons leading to changes in pilot training have been drawn. There is one thing that strikes me the most, and I will get to it in a moment.

I am amazed by planes – how big they are and the fact that they actually fly. I know it’s all physics and stuff, but let me have my moment here. It is absolutely amazing to see such a huge piece of machinery, with so many people on board, lift off into the sky. Every time I see one, I am just like, “Wow!” An Airbus A330 is a huge plane – far from the biggest, but it is big. In the case of Flight 447, there were 228 people on board, so you can imagine the size of this plane. Yet, in the end, it was brought down by something no larger than your average sausage.

Of course, many contributing factors were at play. Perhaps there should have been a system warning pilots of such a malfunction. Had the pilots been trained for such a situation, they could have reacted differently and saved the plane. Nonetheless, the freezing of a tube that is around 30 cm long and 1 cm wide was the starting point of the sequence of events that brought down Flight 447.

How can something so small bring down a massive plane? How can something that seems so inconsequential bring about such catastrophe? And what if the most dangerous things in my life are the very things I hardly notice? The small bad habits I have, the small sin I am aware of, the small decisions I make – do I even understand how much damage they can do to me or someone else in the long run?

Had the pilots of Flight 447 realised they were in a stall, the correct procedure (although perhaps contrary to normal human reaction) would have been to point the nose of the aircraft down (push the yoke forward), which enables the plane to gain speed. Then, once the plane is out of the stall, level off. Sadly, the co-pilot did the exact opposite. He was pulling back the whole time. When the captain realised this, it was too late.

It is a sobering thought to reflect on this. I do not know how many pitot tubes in my life I need to check and make sure they are not freezing. For the ones I know, I pray for strength to put them to death. I would rather not wait for my pitot tubes to freeze and send me into a freefall before I act. I cannot trust myself with that because I could end up like the co-pilot of Flight 447. I pray that I never have to shout, “I don’t have control of [my life] at all!”