Posted on 12/30/2014 8:29:59 PM PST by barmag25
Indonesia's search and recovery agency says a sonar image appears to have found the wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 upside down on the floor of the Java Sea, CBS News has confirmed. It is unclear whether or not the plane has been found intact.
The development comes on the fourth day of the effort to find the remnants of the downed airliner that crashed early Sunday. The cause of the crash is still unknown and searchers are still attempting to recover the plane's black box to get an explanation of how the crash happened.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
How deep, I wonder.
Water is only 100-200 feet max, iirc.
Max depth in that area, from what I read, was 150-175 feet.
Low body count, so far, would imply the plane did not come apart in flight.
That’s what I just looked up, 151 ft average depth. A bit beyond the typical sport scuba diver.
Bloomberg just posted this
Only 24 meters deep and divers are in the water now.
Sonar pics should clarify.
I think it was a high altitude breakup.
This clearly was a crash without much prior warning.
Only if the tail came off or something, there’s just not a big enough debris spread for a Lockerbie type breakup in flight. Chances are pretty good it is the AOA sensor failure Airbus pushed an emergency airworthiness directive out about earlier this month - basically, unless you realize something has gone wrong and you not only switch the craft out of autopilot but into full manual control, the aircraft goes nose down and holds it even if you pull the stick all the way back. Read that again - unless you realize what is happening and that the artificial horizon on the panel and the computer are both wrong, and that you not only have to switch out of autopilot but switch into full manual flight (two separate tasks on an Airbus) the plane will cheerfully auger in even if you are telling it nose up, climb.
Direct quote from the Airworthiness Directive: “An occurrence was reported where an Airbus A321 encountered a blockage of two Angle Of Attack (AOA) probes during climb, leading to activation of the Alpha Protection (Alpha Prot) while the Mach number increased. The flight crew managed to regain full control and the flight landed uneventfully.
When Alpha Prot is activated due to blocked AOA probes, the flight control laws order a continuous nose down pitch rate that, in a worst case scenario, cannot be stopped with backward sidestick inputs, even in the full backward position. If the Mach number increases during a nose down order, the AOA value of the Alpha Prot will continue to decrease. As a result, the flight control laws will continue to order a nose down pitch rate, even if the speed is above minimum selectable speed, known as VLS.”
I mentioned and posted that AD a while ago in a different thread.
There’s not enough data to reach any conclusions yet.
We don’t know the size of the debris field yet.
It shouldn’t be long before we have a lot of solid information.
About what I would expect from a plane made by euro-nannies. Can’t allow a pilot to fly the plane.
I don’t have a lot of confidence in Asian pilots either (if that was in fact who was flying the plane). I have heard that they have trouble thinking outside of the operations manual in an emergency.
This business of the Airbus FCS taking final control out of the pilot’s hands is unthinkable. It works to make the pilot a bystander when it comes to the ultimate control of the plane for which he/she is supposed to be PIC. From what I have read, Airbus philosophy is 180 degrees from that of Boeing. After what has happened recently, you won’t find me on an Airbus.
Seems a good time to repeat the old slogan......”if it ain’t Boeing, I ain’t going”.
“I don’t have a lot of confidence in Asian pilots either (if that was in fact who was flying the plane). I have heard that they have trouble thinking outside of the operations manual in an emergency.”
Yeah, just ask the pilots of the Asiana flight that crashed at SFO. The local TV station listed them as HO LEE FUK, WEE TU LO, SUM TING WONG, and BANG DING OU.
OK, total clueless question. Another post above said its in about 75 feet of water. If the plane nosed straight in, I would assume at throttle position in effect before the comp went bad, would it pancake on impact or auger into the bottom?
According to the Washington Post the plane is upside down, not sure if that is true or not..either way..at least now the families know what happened and they have “closure.” I hate that word closure but at least now the families don’t have to wonder what has happened to their loved ones..condolences to all those on board..read today some were found holding hands
I *think* it depends on the angle at which it hit the ocean surface. I don’t think the Airbus flight computer would command more than, say, a 50 degree nose down attitude. Also, it’s in about 150 feet of water.
Check the Reddit live streaming thread - multiple reports that the plane appears to be largely intact and they’re not finding a huge debris field. Debris and bodies appear to be limited to a small area.
See: Asian drivers
Airbus makes good planes, and so does Boeing but both have had their problems.
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