Posted on 07/30/2011 5:24:58 PM PDT by lbryce
The pilots did it. Put bluntly, that seems to be what the latest report by French air crash investigators on the loss of Air France flight 447 two years ago is saying. More precisely, the pilots had not been trained to deal with the sudden emergency they faced and lost control.
What the investigating body, France’s Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA), are not saying, at least not overtly, is that the crash should never have happened–and, but for a technical failure, would not have.
Air crash investigation reports always deliver a torrent of technical jargon that has been through many drafts. The goal is to be sensitive toward those who can end up getting blamed, but then the language becomes impersonal. So let’s not forget the victims. And what they went through.
This is the stark reality of the end of Flight 447:
Eleven minutes after 2 a.m. on June 1, 2009, the 216 passengers bound for Paris from Rio de Janeiro were plunging toward the Atlantic Ocean at a rate of 10,000 feet a minute. But for the restraint of seat belts, they would have been tossed around the cabin like loose luggage.
They would have been fully aware of their plight. The airplane, an Airbus A330, had lost its ability to fly. During the fall its nose reared up far more steeply than in a takeoff, and it stayed there. It was in an aerodynamic stall. As it fell, the Airbus turned right, away from its heading to Europe and, three minutes after the descent began, it was heading back toward Brazil. With its nose still pointed sharply up, its wings dipped slightly left and at a forward speed of just over 120mph, the airplane hit the Atlantic.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
There had never been a crash like this: an airplane representing state of the art flight deck automation, an airline with a long and esteemed record, flying a route that should have been routine disappeared without explanation and without trace. Then, spectacularly, this spring the airplane’s black boxes and cockpit voice recorder were recovered on a sandy plateau 13,000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, after two previously aborted searches.
Legend has it that Boeing is built for pilots, while Airbus is built for those that want to be pilots. In Boeing jets, the pilot can override onboard computers and their built-in soft limits should they choose to do so. Boeing planes are designed to put the ultimate control of the aircraft into the hands of the pilot while Airbus prefers to leave control to software, automation.
What is not being said about where the blame lies is the hubris in which Airbus places its trust in automation, software over that of human/pilot intervention.
Whenever I book a trip I always make sure I’m on a Boeing
This is so weird; those people would have been safer that day with a Cessna 152 pilot at the controls, or even an RC model pilot.
If it ain’t Boeing I ain’t going.
Very interesting piece. However, when I clicked the dailybeast link, my Kaspersky anti-virus software said I was dowloading a Trojan virus... (not joking). Interesting column though.
If the bus hit tail first there is no way in hell that the tailplane would have been as intact as the pictures showed of it floating around in the atlantic.Water or not you are still hitting concrete at that speed.
Yeah! It’s a damn conspiracy!
BSOD
Fate Is The Hunter by Ernest K. Gann
A good read. Book not movie.
http://rwebs.net/avhistory/fate.htm
The article stated that the descent was so rapid and violent that the cargo hold was crushed and the vertical fin sheared away before impact.
Sounds believable to me - airbus planes seem to be notorious for shedding rudders.
” This is so weird; those people would have been safer that day with a Cessna 152 pilot at the controls, or even an RC model pilot. “
Roger that! I fly both!!
I contend that the verticle seperating was the cause of the crash just like the bird right after 9/11.Also an airbust
When you have the french gubmint footing the bill for most of, if not all of, airbust then a conspiracey is not too far fetched.
Have you no faith in our European brethren?
I guess I’m just a hard case that way.I think it comes with age oh wait a minute,I have always been this way.
Previous reports stated that they were in an area of very strong thunderstorm activity at the time which can cause very violent turbulence. If they had that to contend with, as well as loss of air speed indication, they had their hands full. Also there was a report that other instruments were erratic at failing at times. I can imagine a pilot becoming disoriented if instrument visuals were lost and turbulence was tossing the plane about. I was trained for many hours to nose down and regain flying speed upon entering a stall, but was never trained to do the same in a violent thunderstorm without airspeed indication, so I can’t be sure I would react correctly in that situation. I also was trained to extremely slow flight on the very edge of a stall at high altitude to set in my mind what it feels like. If you are about to stall you have to react almost instantly and you better react the right way. Sadly, it appears that panic took over and training went out the window in this case
Reading the article don't really says what caused the crash. It's all speculation. If it ain’t Boeing I ain’t going? Yeah? I had worked with an airline flying international including scheduled flights to the land of Chicoms, equipments from B747-400 & 200, A300b4-600, A320s, B737s to Bae145s, not to mention our domstic turboprop fleets. All airline transport pilots employed by airlines with US-FAA certification undergo rigid periodical recurrent qualification training from simulator to checkride proficiency tests flying empty airplane by equipment they fly loaded with ballasts dummy load how pilots handles emergencies. We had a Airbus famous veteran oh captain my captain we always called "sir" who failed on simulator had to humbly fly co-pilot until he passed required proficient tests. Saying AF447 pilots didn't know how to handle emergencies is pure baloney.
It’s not the pilots I worry about it’s the plane. I’ll fly Boeing, thank you.
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