After reading that, all I can say is "Man, is that guy smart."
Everyday, the internet continues to amaze me. It's the most collaborative tool that's ever been created.
The author spells out in great detail what a challenge the weather would have played for the crew and the aircraft. I'm still puzzled why there wasn't any mayday call. But, I'm sure that will be revealed if and when the FDR's are recovered.
“I’m still puzzled why there wasn’t any mayday call.”
When you are hit by windsheer in a thunderhead you wouldn’t have time to even press the mic button.
I was hit in a very small one that was imbedded in a storm and I was turned upside down instantly without warning.
The thing that really pissed me off was when I told the controler to get me out of these things he responded that I only had 2 more small ones ahead of me.
Problem was he couldn’t vary my flight path or altitude since I was on the transition from El Monte vor to the Seal Beach vor crossing the LAX landing pattern.
They were way out in nowhere in the Atlantic!!!
What is the range of radio communication there???
There could be two reasons why no mayday call.
1. The plane was 400 miles from land, well out of range of normal VHF radio and of any radar coverage. Planes on crossings like that use HF (think shortwave) radio to talk to oceanic control centers, but HF is notoriously bad around thunderstorms and it’s apparently not unusual for a plane to drop out of contact for a little while.
2. I’m not a pilot but I know a few. From what I know, their first rule when things go pear-shaped is “aviate, navigate, communicate”—i.e., fly the plane first, then worry about where you are and where you’re going, and only then worry about telling someone about it. With the large number of cascading failures that AF447 was getting hit with, it’s possible that even had they been in range to talk to somebody on VHF, the crew was too busy fighting to survive to actually use the radio.
}:-)4