Posted on 03/15/2019 11:04:17 AM PDT by Red Badger
A screw-like device found in the wreckage of the Boeing 737 Max that crashed last Sunday in Ethiopia indicates the plane was configured to dive. ==============================================================
A screw-like device found in the wreckage of the Boeing 737 Max that crashed last Sunday in Ethiopia indicates the plane was configured to dive, a piece of evidence that helped convince U.S. regulators to ground the model, a person familiar with the investigation said late Thursday night.
Federal Aviation Administration chief Daniel Elwell on Wednesday cited unspecified evidence found at the crash scene as part of the justification for the agency to reverse course and temporarily halt flights of Boeing's largest selling aircraft. Up until then, American regulators had held off as nation after nation had grounded the plane, Boeing's best-selling jet model.
The piece of evidence was a so-called jackscrew, used to set the trim that raises and lowers the plane's nose, according to the person, who requested anonymity to discuss the inquiry.
A preliminary review of the device and how it was configured at the time of the crash indicated that it was set to push down the nose, according to the person, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
The jackscrew, combined with a newly obtained satellite flight track of the plane, convinced the FAA that there were similarities to the Oct. 29 crash of the same Max model off the coast of Indonesia. In the earlier accident, a safety feature on the Boeing aircraft was repeatedly trying to put the plane into a dive as a result of a malfunction.
All 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 died early Sunday shortly after the plane took off. The pilot reported an unspecified problem and was trying to return to the airport. The plane crashed near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. The plane's crash-proof recorders have been sent to France to be analyzed.
The discovery of the jackscrew was earlier reported by NBC News. 3 COMMENTS
Separately, the New York Times reported that doomed Ethiopian Airlines plane was in trouble almost immediately after takeoff as it lurched up and down by hundreds of feet at a time. The captain of the Boeing Co. 737 Max 8 asked in a panicky voice to turn back only three minutes into the flight as the plane accelerated to abnormal speeds, the newspaper reported, citing a person who reviewed the jet's air traffic communications.
Is there no “black box”?
Just a quick question. Is it possible to hack the computer systems of these planes?
One of the pilots used the plane, as the German pilot did, to commit suicide via jihad?
Don’t know..................
Yes, they have been taken to France. One of them reported to be heavily damaged, not sure which one, Cockpit voice recorder or Flight controls recorder...............................
Everything can be hacked on a plane.
Last I saw there was no evidence of human remains found, but suspiciously and conveniently intact photos, etc., of the the supposed victims were located there. No major plane body. Seeming like a possible “Let’s roll” flight, whereby the passengers might have been bused into a hangar and disposed of otherwise, while a healthy plane continued on for a future life and the supposed crash scene was prepared in advance.
Yes, there are two, cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. Both have been recovered, and are being analyzed in France.
Jet Was Set To Dive , that’s the new anti stall on the plane that pilots don’t know is on the plane
- several similar aviation accidents had autopilot and/or instrument indicator problems. Rather than simply hand fly the aircraft and rely on the standby gauges, these pilots kept trying to make the automated systems fly the aircraft, and they crashed.
It didn't need one- it had a "safety feature."
I'm not an aviation expert, but modern airplanes various systems communicate in real-time with ground receivers and Boeing collects this data. I believe the general architecture and systems are similar to how Drones and UAVs are controlled. Remember also that a couple years ago, Iran supposedly hacked a US drone and forced it to land in Iran.
So yes, I believe it would be hackable - but it would be a very sophisticated and high-level hack.
Why would it be on ‘Autopilot’ only 3 minutes into the flight?..................
From a retired pilot friend... modern planes are equipped with computers to make many decisions for the pilot. It helps in third-world areas where pilots aren’t as well-trained. The pilot doesn’t even have the ability to override much of what the computer decides to do... scary!
In this scenario, the computer thought the plane was stalling. Step 1: drop the nose and gain airspeed. The pilot was likely pulling on the stick for his life while the computer simply ignored him and plowed into the ground.
Correction to my previous post: if that was the case, it should not have been an autopilot problem (autopilot is tied into the instrument indications).
Flight control malfunction of some kind.....
Pretty much spot on.
Modern commercial flying. Pretty much have a button to take off, go to destination, and land. The pilot is there more or less "just in case."
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
As a Mondey morning quarterback, when the pilot couldn't override the auto pilot with the control yoke, this jackscrew displacement indicates that he cranked the trim tab all the way forward.
What it renders down to is that the pilot didn't have a full understanding of the systems on his aircraft. Is it the pilot, or the aircraft? That, I will leave to others.
Some said the elevation of the airport may have been a factor, at 7625 ft above sea level................
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