Posted on 12/30/2014 8:29:59 PM PST by barmag25
There’s no indication that any computer went bad, so far.
The AD iss not about computers going bad, anyway. It’s about AOA probes freezing and giving the computers bad information.
There’s no way to tell how it impacted the water without some pics of whatever is left of the plane.
The recorders should be relatively easy to locate and recover, so I think it’s just a matter of time before we know what happened.
To be fair, Airbus does allow the pilot to kick the computers out of nanny mode and allow it to fly ‘manually’ - but it’s a separate step and the pilot must realize that he needs to take that step apart from switching off the autopilot.
That’s not a uniquely Asian thing. There’s apparently a lot of that going around.
The reason I ask (and being clueless about this stuff doesn’t help) is that I saw something about the thing resting upside down, though no condition od WHAT was resting upside down was stated.
Considering the length of a plane I was trying to picture it nosing into the bottom and flipping/thus how it got upside down, or if it was ‘pieces’ resting there upside down. But even 150 is seemingly ‘doable’ to bottom out didn’t disintergrate.
I was always told to use a seat cushion.
Way too early, imo.
Early reports of big stories often lead down false roads.
6 bodies could be the 6 that came out early when the tail broke off, for example.
We need to know if any significant bits are missing, for one thing.
Like the V-stab, for example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447
Above is a case of a plane flying into bad weather and incompetent pilots flying a perfectly good plane into the ocean.
Keep in mind that objects entering the water can tend to re-orient based on a number of factors. Any number of ships observed to sink with their keels pointing down have been found on the sea floor with their keels pointing up, for example.
Sum Ting Wong has always been my favorite.
To be slightly fair to the incompetent pilot, he was getting bad information from his frozen pitot tubes. On the other hand, he should have realized there was a problem and flown by power settings and AH alone.
Right, but thats where the throttle/speed bit comes in. If it hit at 500 mph (or thereabouts) that aint much time to slow and reorient in 150 feet. I’d think it would barely slow it UNLESS the surface tension thing destroyed it outright.
But as you mentioned, a shallower angle of entry could result in both I would guess.
Braniff Airways Flight 542, a Lockheed Model L-188A (Electra) airplane
“The major portion of the airplane struck the ground in a nearly vertical attitude. Impact forces formed a crater measuring 30 feet across and 12 feet deep. Most of the airplane forming the crater disintegrated and buried.”
http://lessonslearned.faa.gov/ll_main.cfm?TabID=2&LLID=7&LLTypeID=2
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/553569-air-asia-indonesia-lost-contact-surabaya-singapore-36.html
I read somewhere earlier about 75 feet deep.
“After what has happened recently, you won’t find me on an Airbus.”
Question: When you book a flight, how do you know what aircraft you will be flying?
Well, there were two incompetent pilots on deck. Neither recognized that the icing event was over in about a minute, and neither knew to put the nose down in a stall. Then there was the captain who made the decision to fly into bad weather that other aircraft on that route avoided.
From what I understand the European airlines will hire pilots with no experience and teach them to fly by flight computer. That really showed with AF447.
Sounds like it was designed by idiots.
Wonder how many crashes it will take before Airbus is sued out of existence.
From your own link:
“Wreckage was located within a total distance of 13,900 feet from the first recovered item to the nose crater”
So far, from what reports that have been posted, the debris appears to be confined to a considerably smaller area than that. Also, that was a much slower aircraft at a much lower altitude, 7000 feet. When a jet airliner breaks up in flight at cruising altitude, the debris field is usually enormous. TWA800 broke up (for whatever reason - missile, center tank explosion, UFO, magic spell, whatever) at just 15,000 feet while climbing out (so slower than at cruise) and the debris field was almost twice that size. When Pan Am 103 broke up over Lockerbie Scotland due to a bomb on board, it was flying at about the same altitude (31,000 feet) and speed (~500mph) as the AirAsia flight. Its debris field was ten *miles* wide and eight miles long.
If this was a breakup, pretty sure it was something like the tail came off. Not a midair breakup due to a bomb.
Usually the scheduled aircraft type will be printed on your ticket, or you can call and ask the airline.
Unfortunately, while it’s usually accurate, it’s not always. Due to the vagaries of mechanical objects, sometimes ‘substitute’ planes are sent due to breakdowns, etc. So you don’t really know what you’re going to get until you get to the gate and physically look.
You hate “closure” and I hate “black boxes.”
they are Flight Data Recorders
A friend of mine was killed in a Boeing 737 crash in Colorado Springs. Still don’t have closure.
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