Posted on 06/29/2009 5:58:54 PM PDT by Steelfish
Yemeni airliner crashes in Indian Ocean 150 people reportedly on board; fate unknown
BREAKING NEWS o MORONI, Comoros - An airliner belonging to Yemeni state carrier Yemenia Air crashed in the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean with 150 people on board, a senior government official said Tuesday.
"We don't know if there are any survivors among the 150 people on the plane," a senior government official told Reuters.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
That's because Airbuses actually shrink as they fly. ;-)
No kidding?
I thought that was just submarines.
:)
Didn't do that twice.
Comoran police source says Airbus is believed to have went down in the sea. "We really have no sea rescue capabilities," he says.Yeah, really, why would they, they live on effing islands.
Airbus planes also have a nasty history of the tail coming off with Airbus rushing to bury the problem instead.
Airbus is the aircraft equivalent of British Leyland - it’s a government jobs program.
I am going hummmm too. Also, there has been another "doubled" event - a train in Italy has derailed and blew up, just as one in the US did recently.
That’s not exactly surprising, since most of the planet is covered by water. :P
Yemenias fleet is half scarebus
There are several nation’s names that should not be combined with “Airline.” Yemen is one of them.
Unless they contract out all flight and maintenance functions to a western company.
I wonder if they have made something that looks like a laptop and can zap the Airbust computer.
Why would you need to? The tail falling off will take care of the airplane in the end. :P
For years, Saudia paid TWA for all of their MX and crews. I don't know who handles Saudia these days, but I wouldnt think twice about getting on one-all the crews are British!
Sorry this is so long, but I just received it today in an email from a mechanic who works for a major airline:
Some more info you can consider with a grain of sand until it is confirmed on the Air France accident. I think this is more plausible then the sensors considering the AA accident in NY and the Air Canada accident before that.
Subject: Air France Accident: Smoking Gun Found
A Brazilian Naval unit reportedly found the complete vertical fin/rudder assembly of the doomed aircraft floating some 30 miles from the main debris field. The search for the flight recorders goes on, but given the failure history of the vertical fins on A300-series aircraft, an analysis of its structure at the point of failure will likely yield the primary cause factor in the breakup of the aircraft, with the flight recorder data (if found) providing only secondary contributing phenomena.
The fin-failure-leading-to-breakup sequence is strongly suggested in the attached (below) narrative report by George Larson, Editor emeritus of Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine.
It’s regrettable that these aircraft are permitted to continue in routine flight operations with this known structural defect. It appears that safety finishes last within Airbus Industries, behind national pride and economics. Hopefully, this accident will force the issue to be addressed, requiring at a minimum restricted operations of selected platforms, and grounding of some high-time aircraft until a re-engineered (strengthened) vertical fin/rudder attachment structure can be incorporated.
Les
—————————————(George Larson’s Report)-——————————
This is an account of a discussion I had recently with a maintenance professional who salvages airliner airframes for a living. He has been at it for a while, dba BMI
Salvage at Opa Locka Airport in Florida. In the process of stripping parts, he sees things few others are able to see. His observations confirm prior assessments of
Airbus structural deficiencies within our flight test and aero structures communities by those who have seen the closely held reports of A3XX-series vertical fin failures.
His observations:
“I have scrapped just about every type of transport aircraft from A-310, A-320, B-747, 727, 737, 707, DC-3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, MD-80, L-188, L1011 and various Martin, Convair and KC-97 aircraft.
Over a hundred of them.
Airbus products are the flimsiest and most poorly designed as far as airframe structure is concerned by an almost obsession to utilize composite materials.
I have one A310 vertical fin on the premises from a demonstration I just performed. It was pathetic to see the composite structure shatter as it did, something a Boeing product will not do.
The vertical fin along with the composite hinges on rudder and elevators is the worst example of structural use of composites I have ever seen and I am not surprised by the current pictures of rescue crews recovering the complete Vertical fin and rudder assembly at some distance from the crash site.
The Airbus line has a history of both multiple rudder losses and a vertical fin and rudder separation from the airframe as was the case in NY with AA.
As an old non-radar equipped DC4 pilot who flew through many a thunderstorm in Africa along the equator, I am quite familiar with their ferocity. It is not difficult to understand how such a storm might have stressed an aircraft
structure to failure at its weakest point, and especially so in the presence of instrumentation problems.”
I replied with this:
“I’m watching very carefully the orchestration of the inquiry by French officials and Airbus. I think I can smell a concerted effort to steer discussion away from structural issues and onto sensors, etc. Now Air France, at the behest of their pilots’ union, is replacing all the air data
sensors on the Airbus fleet, which creates a distraction and shifts the media’s focus away from the real problem.
It’s difficult to delve into the structural issue without wading into the Boeing vs. Airbus swamp, where any observation is instantly tainted by its origin. Americans noting any Airbus structural issues (A380 early failure
of wing in static test; loss of vertical surfaces in Canadian fleet prior to AA A300, e.g.) will be attacked by the other side as partisan, biased, etc. “
His follow-up:
One gets a really unique insight into structural issues when one has first-hand experience in the dismantling process.
I am an A&P, FEJ and an ATP with 7000 flight hours and I was absolutely stunned, flabbergasted when I realized that the majority of internal airframe structural supports on the A 310 which appear to be aluminum are actually rolled composite material with aluminum rod ends. They shattered.
Three years ago we had a storm come through, with gusts up to 60-70 kts., catching several A320s tied down on the line, out in the open.
The A320 elevators and rudder hinges whose actuators had been removed shattered and the rudder and elevators came off.
Upon closer inspection I realized that not only were the rear spars composite but so were the hinges. While Boeing also uses composite material in its airfoil structures, the actual attach fittings for the elevators, rudder, vertical and horizontal stabilizers are all of machined aluminum.”
thanks for posting.
Welcome to FR.
Airbus needs to standdown, ground their fleet. This was an A310.
Something’s broke or something weird is going on.
I’m not flying on one.
As I always say, there is no such thing as an Atheist on a crashing Airplane.
Take it to the Bank.
Nice conspiracy theory routed in nothing but ignorance.
The A310 and A330 have very, very little in common aside from both being made Airbus. In terms of technology you’re talking about a Cessna 152 (the 300/310) vs. a Gulfstream V (the 330/340). AGAIN, ASIDE FROM THE MOST BASIC AVIONICS, THERE IS NO COMPARISON BETWEEN AN A310 and A330-200.
I love when the Airbus-bashers come out to speak their mind. I fly a Brazilian-made aircraft for a living, and I’m sure some of you have flown in an Embraer — made in a developing country, not France, Germany, Canada, or the US. There is also a good chance your last flight on a commercial aircraft went through its last heavy check in a place like Costa Rica or Hong Kong. Christ, I feel like I have to throw my head through a wall to get this point across.
I love America, but this tired bit about a European-built Airbus is inferior to a American-built Boeing (HEAVILY UNIONIZED, BTW) is damn ridiculous.
They act as if these birds just fall out of the sky on a weekly basis.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.