This is a Ruestur-Zeth production.

November 27, 2008.

XL Airways Germany Flight 888T, an Airbus A320 with 7 people on board, is flying over France as part of an acceptance flight.

The plane has been leased by one airline and now the lease has expired, it has been repainted and is flying on a test flight to make sure everything is okay before returning to service with its own company.

Air traffic control has denied the clearances the plane requested for some of its maneuvers so the pilots are improvising some tests in order to fulfill the requirements.

The plane slows down to a dangerous speed that pitches down toward the sea below.

The pilots desperately try to recover the plane but run out of time and the plane impacts the ocean killing all on board.

What happened during this run of the mail test flight? Find out on this episode of Black Box Down.

Hello everyone, welcome to Black Box Down, it's Gus and Chris. Hello Chris. Hello Gus and people listening. Oh yeah, oh, I didn't see you there. Hello.

I still, I still actually don't see you there.

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I know a couple of photos that I'm going to want to post from this episode, but you go check them out there. We'll get to the meter that here in a bit.

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You become a first class passenger, but you can't do that at any other airline for less than three bucks.

You can't even get an alcoholic drink for $2.99. No, on a plane or really just about anywhere. No, I mean, I guess you could have, you could have one, it's a podcast, you could be listening to one right now or having one while listening.

I know what you meant.

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You have one. I saw you wearing one yesterday. I don't have like the that almost bluish Black Box Down shirt.

Like, oh, they're like schematic one. Yeah, that was really cool.

I have a black one. I don't have that one. I need to get that. Anyway, you check it out in our link tree or go to store.roostartyth.com for all of our Black Box Down merch.

Okay. Anyway, back to the meat of this one. It's a bit of a strange one. XL Airways Germany flight 888T. Like I said, was a test flight for an Airbus A320.

Is that what the T is for?

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