The airline industry is expected to implement major changes in its training procedures—particularly those intended to help pilots quickly react and regain control in the event of high-altitude flight upsets—following a report last week that shed light on the 2009 stall and crash of an Air France jet.

While cruising at 35,000 feet and nearly four hours into what seemed a routine overnight flight to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, Air France pilots got a stall warning and responded by yanking the nose of the plane up, instead of pointing it down to gain essential speed, according to information released Friday by French accident investigators.

The June 2009 crash took the lives of all 228 on board.

Apparently confused by repeated stall warnings and reacting to wildly fluctuating airspeed indications, pilots of Flight 447 continued to pull back sharply on the controls for almost a minute—even as the Airbus A330 plummeted toward the water, according to the information released Friday.

The report raised questions about how seasoned pilots for a top airline, flying one of the industry's most advanced jets, violated such a fundamental rule of airmanship.