On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 plummeted from the sky, crashing into the Atlantic Ocean and claiming the lives of all 228 individuals onboard.

For years, the fate of the aircraft, which had been en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, remained shrouded in mystery.

The plane, regarded as one of the safest in the industry and manned by experienced pilots, had disappeared without even a Mayday call.

However, in 2011, the submerged wreckage of the plane, concealed two miles beneath the ocean surface, was finally retrieved. Among the debris was the crucial black box, containing the chilling final words of the pilots.

The remnants of the aircraft unveiled the intricate sequence of events, along with the tragic human error, that led to Flight 447's descent beneath the waves.

Just before the crash, which took place around 02:14am UTC, the plane went through storm clouds, resulting in its speed sensors icing over, reports the Daily Star.

This automatically disengaged the autopilot, necessitating manual resumption of the aircraft's speed control by the pilots.

In the ensuing confusion, the pilots failed to react appropriately, leading to the plane stalling.

When an aircraft stalls in such a manner, pilots should attempt to pitch the aircraft downward to rectify the stall.

However, amidst the chaos, the Air France crew made the fatal error of pitching upward, sealing the flight's fate.

In the salvaged black box, Captain Marc Dubois, aged 58, can be heard querying the pilots, "Er, what are you doing?".

"We've lost all control of the aeroplane, we don't understand anything, we've tried everything," responds co-pilot David Robert, 37, repeatedly shouting, "Climb! Climb! Climb!"

In a terrifying, split-second realisation of what has gone wrong, Captain Dubois begins yelling "No no no, don't climb! No No No!".

But by this point, it was too late. "We're going to crash! This can't be true. But what's happening?", exclaims co-pilot Pierre-Cédric Bonin, 32.

Then, just before the plane plunged into the sea, someone utters the chilling last words, "F***, we're dead."

Not a single passenger on the flight survived, with the black box revealing that those on board were kept in the dark as the aircraft made its three-and-a-half-minute descent into the Atlantic.

Autopsies conducted after the flight, and discoveries including that oxygen masks had never been deployed, led investigators to conclude that the aircraft had landed in the ocean intact.

This suggested it was likely that some passengers had survived the initial impact and drowned in the freezing ocean while waiting for help.

It took 13 hours for rescue teams to reach the site of the disaster.

In 2023, 14 years after the crash, both Airbus and AirFrance were acquitted on charges of involuntary manslaughter for negligence leading to the 228 deaths.