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What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447
Popular Mechanics ^ | Jeff Wise

Posted on 12/07/2011 9:55:38 AM PST by ventanax5

For more than two years, the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 over the mid-Atlantic in the early hours of June 1, 2009, remained one of aviation's great mysteries. How could a technologically state-of-the art airliner simply vanish?

With the wreckage and flight-data recorders lost beneath 2 miles of ocean, experts were forced to speculate using the only data available: a cryptic set of communications beamed automatically from the aircraft to the airline's maintenance center in France. As PM found in our cover story about the crash, published two years ago this month, the data implied that the plane had fallen afoul of a technical problem—the icing up of air-speed sensors—which in conjunction with severe weather led to a complex "error chain" that ended in a crash and the loss of 228 lives.

(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airfrance; airlines; aviation; crash; error; pilots
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To: Abathar

For me it’s gently-used Ford trucks/SUVs.


21 posted on 12/07/2011 11:09:58 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: ventanax5

Stories like these don’t help this lifelong fraidy cat flyer. I have no experience flying a plane and even I know that if a plane stalls, you NEVER pull up. It seems to me we had an inexperienced guy who freaked out, a flawed design in the aircraft, and a total meltdown of discipline and experience in the end.


22 posted on 12/07/2011 11:14:20 AM PST by lazypadawan
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To: Scotsman will be Free

You are correct, poor piloting killed everyone.

Expect to see more of this as years past. We now have “digital aircraft operators” not pilots. They have little ability to operate the aircraft manually. Take all the instrument panel toys and eye candy away from them and they might as well kiss their ass good bye if in true IMC conditions.

Some of the problem is in the new mindset of the aircraft engineers, but most of the problem is the pilots refusing to remain proficient in rudimentary flight skills.

That aircraft can safely fly with no airspeed indicators with nothing more than the attitude indicator and the engine power controls. It is right there in the aircraft ops manual, and has been used several times in the past in similar situations by experienced and well trained pilots.


23 posted on 12/07/2011 11:18:49 AM PST by wrench
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To: ventanax5

My son and I were discussing this crash last weekend.

He’s more knowledgeable on this stuff than me.

If electronics, gauges, displays fail, 75% power, 5 deg. nose up. hold the wings level.
At high altitudes the safe envelope is very narrow. High angle of attack...stall. Even at relatively high speed.
Too low angle of attack..over-speed.


24 posted on 12/07/2011 11:20:20 AM PST by Vinnie
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To: wrench

My wife is a retired airline captain, former small plane pilot and aerobatic pilot. That girl could fly. The amazing thing I found was that the vast majority of airline pilots had never flown small planes, just the big iron.


25 posted on 12/07/2011 11:23:04 AM PST by Scotsman will be Free (11C - Indirect fire, infantry - High angle hell - We will bring you, FIRE)
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To: ventanax5
How could a technologically state-of-the art airliner simply vanish?

It didn't "simply vanish." It fell into the sea. There, "mystery" solved.

26 posted on 12/07/2011 11:29:37 AM PST by Moltke (Always retaliate first.)
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To: wrench

Just what you said.

IMO too much reliance of electronic instrumentation.

Just like kids today trying to make change w/o an electronic register or calculator.
Totally lost.


27 posted on 12/07/2011 11:32:16 AM PST by Vinnie
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To: Scotsman will be Free
...The story makes it pretty clear that the junior First Officer screwed up by stalling the plane and keeping the nose up all of the way down...

The fact that the pilots are told (ingrained) that they CANNOT stall the aircraft is the root problem, IMO.

They simply did not believe that it was possible and assumed an instrument failure. Nobody ever mentioned it when the alarm was blaring and the stick shaker was going off. Whatever you are taught, the stick shaker always tells the truth and one does not disregard it, EVER!

28 posted on 12/07/2011 11:32:45 AM PST by Mr. Quarterpanel (I am not an actor, but I play one on TV)
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To: US Navy Vet

I’m sorry, but that remark makes you sound like a jerk.


29 posted on 12/07/2011 11:40:41 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Ceterum autem censeo, Obama delenda est.)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

I’ve been called worse, by better.


30 posted on 12/07/2011 11:43:16 AM PST by US Navy Vet (Go Packers! Go Rockies! Go Boston Bruins! See, I'm "Diverse"!)
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To: ventanax5

I watched an episode of “Mayday” on this. It was particularly unsettling because of all the mistakes the pilots made.


31 posted on 12/07/2011 11:44:51 AM PST by proud American in Canada
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To: Scotsman will be Free

It’s from wiki so you probably won’t believe it, but here goes.

“The trimmable horizontal stabilizer (THS) moved from 3 to 13 degrees nose-up in about 1 minute, and remained in that latter position until the end of the flight.”


32 posted on 12/07/2011 11:47:56 AM PST by ILS21R (Never give up)
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To: US Navy Vet

There was absolutely no evidence of a mechanical failure or a clear design inadequacy. The human errors were tragic but not any worse than errors common to any human endeavor.


33 posted on 12/07/2011 11:49:15 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Ceterum autem censeo, Obama delenda est.)
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To: US Navy Vet

With good cause, no doubt.


34 posted on 12/07/2011 11:50:39 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Ceterum autem censeo, Obama delenda est.)
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To: businessprofessor

My comment was more about the commonality between the other poster’s truck woes and the AF447 equipment-oriented failures. As a system component, the flight deck crew definitely figures into the cascading errors experienced. I most certainly agree with you on that.


35 posted on 12/07/2011 12:19:56 PM PST by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
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To: Abathar
...but not any more after what happened with the unions and bond holders.

I'm with you 100% there.

36 posted on 12/07/2011 12:24:22 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Abathar

Glad you got home OK. What make of vehicle out of curiosity?


37 posted on 12/07/2011 12:38:38 PM PST by Moleman
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To: Moleman

97 Suburban 4x4, haven’t had many problems with it either. I use it for my running around truck, 200k miles now.


38 posted on 12/07/2011 12:42:33 PM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: ILS21R

Black box and cockpit recorder, according to the Popular Mechanics story mind you, tell a different tale. That’s all I can tell you.


39 posted on 12/07/2011 12:51:49 PM PST by Scotsman will be Free (11C - Indirect fire, infantry - High angle hell - We will bring you, FIRE)
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To: ventanax5

The transcript is chilling. Having the greenest pilot in control of the aircraft was not a wise decision.

On the bright side, at least the passengers never knew what hit them. Aside from what was likely unnerving turbulence, they probably had little idea that their flight was in peril.


40 posted on 12/07/2011 1:08:38 PM PST by Retired Greyhound (.)
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