Several commercial airline incidents and accidents have been traced to a failure of the pitot-static system . Examples include Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 2553 , Northwest Airlines Flight 6231 , Birgenair Flight 301 and one of the two X-31s . The French air safety authority BEA said that pitot tube icing was a contributing factor in the crash of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic Ocean . In 2008 Air Caraïbes reported two incidents of pitot tube icing malfunctions on its A330s
Air France Flight 447
Air France Flight 447
Pitot tube