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.
My speculation:
- 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.
...
I agree. Incompetent pilots hesitate to disable any type of automation because they lack the skills to fly. If this was like the Lion Air crash all they had to do was disable the automatic trim.
Is that future life to breed with aliens so that their offspring can return to Earth and take over the planet? (I think we’re on to something)
Some said the elevation of the airport may have been a factor, at 7625 ft above sea level................
Could the computer have been mistaken in thinking the aircraft was higher than it was?.................
I have done 30+ cruises on large ships since 1988. Only experienced ONE dangerous episode where the ship suddenly made a hard right turn at full acceleration. several passengers were injured mainly who were in open areas with nothing solid to hang on to. Me and the family were on the staircase, and just hung on to the hand rails while the ship tilted 45 degrees.
The cause? The auto-pilot had malfunctioned!! With 1200 crew on board why do they need autopilots?
Good question! Pilots must be trained to immediately disengage autopilots at the slightest hint of malfunction.
“Jet Was Set To Dive , that’s the new anti stall on the plane”
Why would any flight management system make a plane dive into the ground?
I guess the answer in this case is that it didn’t know it was doing that because it was getting bad inputs.
Or was it set manually???
Aloha Snackbar??
Just the opposite.. The MCAS system only activates if the Auto Pilot is OFF
Computers are too heavily depended on.
The dreaded BSOD
How does one reboot a plane while in flight?
The MCAS system is different from the autopilot. It is only enabled when the plane is flown manually. There is suppose to be a switch to turn it off altogether. When autopilot is on the MCAS system is off from articles I've read. When the plane is flown manually it has a tendency to lift the nose of the aircraft. The MCAS system forces the nose back down. I am not sure if that is a safety feature or fuel saving feature. I suspect it has more to do with the fuel savings.
The Max has lager engines and are placed forward on the old ones, because to anyone that has flown a 373 the engines are very close to the ground, thus lager engines shorter pylons and set them forward. This makes the wing pitch up due to the normal aeronautical lift but the engines themselves develop lift via thrust. The MCAS detects the Angle of attack indicators on each side of the nose, if these detects the a/c nearing a stall it trims the nose down (only if the flying is done MANUALLY)it also engages brakes or clutches to prevent the pilot from pulling the column back. The Fix is to engage the Auto-Pilot and turn the MCAS OFF (Two switches on the rear of the center console)
I hope this clears up the faulty and erroneous Auto-Pilot issue.
FWIW coming from a former Chief Pilot w/40k Mil and civil hrs
In France for eval.
Your comment appears to have been mistakenly placed on this thread, rather than the Q thread, where it belongs.
Keep Clam and back away from the bong..........
Silly me for pontificating with zero aeronautical knowledge, but aren’t every foreseeable contingency,even the most implausible,simulated over and over?
There’s always a situation that can come up which is not programmed for.
The airport at Addis Ababa is over 7200 feet above sea level.
The computer may have been confused................
Thanks for the reply. What is the purpose of MCAS? Is it safety or fuel savings? If it is safety, why have a switch somewhere to disable it.
A plane going nose-first into the ground is not going to leave a whole lot left of a body. Especially when the plane is full of jet fuel.
We know jet fuel cannot melt steel, but it can melt flesh.
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