The International Rafale forum

The BEAD (the bureau which investigate the accidents) released the report in 2010 about the Rafale B316 lost on the 6th of December, 2007.
http://www.defense.gouv.fr/content/down ... -023-A.pdf

In regard with the manoeuvres accomplished by the pilot until the crash, it looks very obvious that he had no idea of the position of his aircraft, giving orders inconsistent with the situation, until too late. Thus, the most possible cause is spatial disorientation, as suggested earlier.

One given plausible cause is the position of the back-up instruments : if the pilot has tried to check them, he might have moved his head in a way which (ergonomic problem), combined with the manoeuvre, induced sensory illusions (coriolis forces etc).

Thus, the BEAD has asked three modifications on the Rafale :

• they want the back instruments available on the central visualisation (I guess they meant the HUD) so that the pilot can check them without moving his head ;
• they want the implementation of an auto-recovery function (panic button) ;
• they also want a conversation recorder usable after a crash.

I thought it was a C?

They probably mean that the ADI shouldn't be located down right outside the pilots FOV.

Exact.


Maybe because there was only one man onboard ?

Kovy's article :
http://rafalenews.blogspot.com/2011/03/ ... lable.html