666 replies to this topic

[suddste]

JET PILOT, on Jun 1 2009, 07:51 AM, said:

Would a search be conducted for the black boxes on the bottom of the atlantic ocean? Would that be possible or practical at those depths and location?

The news is reporting an "automoatic" message was sent from the aircraft. I think the truth was lost in translation. I think they meant "Automated" message by ACARAS.

some black boxes have beacons to make them easier to find, I don't know how they would get it if it was deep underwater though.

[AirX]

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Pprunes gone mad too.

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[Cereal_Guy]

Mr T. FOOL!, on Jun 1 2009, 03:07 PM, said:

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1213 GMT: Air France suggests the electrical fault was probably caused by the plane suffering a lightning strike.

Surely ligtning wouldnt cause anything catastrophic like this? Lots of planes go through lighning unscathed, what a noobsih comment

i think that a lightningstrike on an airplane is not acceptable as excuse for causing a electrical failure or a structural damage,because aircrafts when hit by a lightning strike act as Faraday cage
causing insignificant damage (please correct me if i'm wrong). anyway by now the plane must have crashed, but i still hope they made it to the african coast and tried to land there...

[Toyuko]

Uh oh!

[JordanFarmer]

Well, as you said, it would act as a faraday cage, and yes, the systems inside would prevent any significant damage by lightning, i think they are just trying ot think of any possible answer to try and explain this awful incident. And they would have landed a long time ago, they are well out of reserve fuel by now, so they probably either exploded mid flight, maybe cargo explosion, or fuel caused by the electrical fault, all electrical systems died and they couldnt control the aircraft ( A330's are fly by wire aren't they?) or they managed to glide it down and ditch, which i doubt. These are my guesses, and i hope to god its the third one

[suddste]

AirX, on Jun 1 2009, 08:29 AM, said:

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Pprunes gone mad too.

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PPRuNe Message

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I would say it's crazy on PPRuNe aswell.

[Pacific-Blue]

I was just watching Skynews and they were interviewing a BA pilot, and he said that there was a build up of large  cumulonimbus clouds some were around bottom part of the atlantic, that was due to warm water currents, and that caused a build up of static electricity and turbulence. maybe there was a black out or something. on that note, whats a redout?
could that build up of static electricity possibly have damaged the aircraft's instruments?  

[Jonay]

I know a blackout is the loss of blood to the brain due to excessive positive G-Force, and Redout is too much blood due to to (much less) excessive negative G-Force, but i doubt its in the same context..

unless the turbulance was thatbad that the jet litterally fell out of the sky

[DC8 Captain]

Mr T. FOOL!, on Jun 1 2009, 09:36 AM, said:

Well, as you said, it would act as a faraday cage, and yes, the systems inside would prevent any significant damage by lightning, i think they are just trying ot think of any possible answer to try and explain this awful incident. And they would have landed a long time ago, they are well out of reserve fuel by now, so they probably either exploded mid flight, maybe cargo explosion, or fuel caused by the electrical fault, all electrical systems died and they couldnt control the aircraft ( A330's are fly by wire aren't they?) or they managed to glide it down and ditch, which i doubt. These are my guesses, and i hope to god its the third one

It could've been Positive Lightning, which is a much rarer more powerful type of lightning, It is believed to be the cause of a Pan Am 707 crash in the early 60's. I don't know if that info is any useful and I hate to speculate because, well the speculators for these things are usually wrong.

[spitfir3]

suddste, on Jun 1 2009, 02:36 PM, said:

AirX, on Jun 1 2009, 08:29 AM, said:

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Pprunes gone mad too.

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I would say it's crazy on PPRuNe aswell.

Rumours & News  (3646 Viewing)  

[mhockey21]

Isn't that a pretty long flight on the A330?  It is mostly over water and in a twin don't they have to stay within a certain amount of miles from a diversion point?  Which would make that even longer?  I fear the worst for the people on the flight.  

[bigflyersmallbyer]

Mr T. FOOL!, on Jun 1 2009, 02:07 PM, said:

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1213 GMT: Air France suggests the electrical fault was probably caused by the plane suffering a lightning strike.

Surely ligtning wouldnt cause anything catastrophic like this? Lots of planes go through lighning unscathed, what a noobsih comment

Because your an investegator are you?

mhockey21, on Jun 1 2009, 03:37 PM, said:

Isn't that a pretty long flight on the A330?  It is mostly over water and in a twin don't they have to stay within a certain amount of miles from a diversion point?  Which would make that even longer?  I fear the worst for the people on the flight.  

True all twin engine planes fly ETOPS over the atlantic.

[THBatMan8]

niteye, on Jun 1 2009, 07:08 AM, said:

If it was a hijacking. I'm speculating that if they turned off the transponder, they could still see him on primary radar momentarily before the plane flew out of their range, but I find it unlikely to be hijackers because it is not usual for them to simply disappear with a plane full of passengers. They'd land somewhere and make demands using the passengers as hostages, or in the case of 9/1 use the plane as a homing missile but they haven't done that.

No, there are FAA/ICAO procedures the flight crew takes in the event of a hijacking. One of them is setting the squawk code to 7500 which alerts ARTCC of a hijacking and the controllers will notify the respective agencies. The transponder wouldn't be shut off unless it was a demand by the hijackers.

JET PILOT, on Jun 1 2009, 08:51 AM, said:

Would a search be conducted for the black boxes on the bottom of the atlantic ocean? Would that be possible or practical at those depths and location?

The news is reporting an "automoatic" message was sent from the aircraft. I think the truth was lost in translation. I think they meant "Automated" message by ACARAS.

It's possible to recover a black box from the Atlantic.  

mhockey21, on Jun 1 2009, 10:37 AM, said:

Isn't that a pretty long flight on the A330?  It is mostly over water and in a twin don't they have to stay within a certain amount of miles from a diversion point?  Which would make that even longer?  I fear the worst for the people on the flight.  

As stated before, it's called ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards) in which certifications are given in accordance to the aircraft and operator.

Any more details given on this yet?

[AirFranceSST]

Indeed just got the news as well.

Here's the French article:

http://fr.news.yahoo...on-ca02f96.html

[smonkcaptain]

I think at this present time, guessing the cause of this disaster is quite inappropriate.
I think the chance of survival of the aircraft is very slim considering that the flight is still missing and the fuel would of gone a long time ago. However, before we can guess i guess we will await further news on the story.

[George Bush]

How absolutely terrible my heart is with the victims and the families of the victims at this time I hope all people on the aircraft rest in eternal peace. Lost, out of fuel and plonk into the sea the tiniest navigational error (losing radar contact probably means they also lost their navigation systems) when flying over the ocean can extend to a large gap from the heading your supposed to be going and the heading that is leading you over more and more sea.

That thing the BA pilot was saying the cumulonimbus clouds could be right. It's strange weather at the moment, extreme heat and clear skies here in the UK for the past week has to mean there's some sort of an imbalance going on in the world wide weather systems.

On a further thought what Mul said could be true, one of the only ways it could just 'slip of the radar' is if the structure of the aircraft completely disintegrates like a mid air explosion similar to the BAE comet incidents in the 1950's over the Medditerranean.

RIP

Edited by George Bush, 01 June 2009 - 10:26 AM.

[Lucas]

Could be a clear sky turbulence it doesn't show on the weather radar and can cause a huge structural problem or fire (which is rare) causing an explosion,  whatever happened was completely unexpected/unpredictable, so quick that they didn't have time to contact tower, We can't guess, better wait for updated news. There are Air Force planes searching the area where the tower last communicated with them, and one is making the same route they made, Navy is there too lets hope they find something.

Edited by Lucas, 01 June 2009 - 10:27 AM.

[aviatordom]

Shocked to read about this, almost certain that there are deaths, so RIP

Condolences to friends & families

[AmericanAirFan]

In order to respect the situation I think I best not speculate anything, but I pray for the families of those who wait for the bad news to be certain

[.Sam.]

http://www.airliners...df5440413c3fdc1

Its weird and scary to look at this picture, as its just disappeared with 200+ odd lives, but this is Air France F-GZCP - The exact plane thats gone missing,