Air France A330 Missing over the Atlantic...

[juanchopancho]

A detailed meteorological analysis
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/

[thedr2]

I take back what I said earlier, the evidence that debris has been found 35 miles apart suggests to me that the plane broke up in the air. This could have been caused by any number of things: structural defects, over-stress and unfortunately, an explosion, to name a few. A harrowing thought, and I hope I really am wrong about the last one.

[EduardoMorteo]

Gentlemen,

Sad, sad, sad news...
Brazilian Air Force found the accident local. An E-99 (ERJ145 with special radar) has found passengers seats, orange vest and white parts of the fuselage. No survivor was found.  Sad
Brazilian specialists says that A330 flew into the Atlantic Ocean in high speed.
Ahh, they also found oil and Jet fuel, so I believe that the A330 didn´t explode.


RIP

[Filippo]

wait a sec, could a posititve lightening strike cause an electricity loss?

If this is the case:

A posititve lightening strike has put out electricity on board. There are fans below the plane that spin due to the air to create electricity. This is enough to keep the plane going, but not enough to do advanced manuvers.

Then, a loss in cabin pressure occured. Due to the storm they were flying at a very high altitude. When the loss of cabin pressure occured, they only had 12 minutes (oxygen reserves) left. They therefore pitched, but, due to the small quantity of electricity the flaps and spoilers did not activate. Y

The plane reached above normal speeds and when they were at 10 000 feet (oxygen is available at this altitude) they were so quick that they did not manage to pull the nose up, so they went crashing into the sea. Or, the readings on their apparatus was wrong, they had no visual horizon and it was dark, so they desended more than needed therefore plunging into the sea. Maybe the plane also broke in the air due to the high speed (this would explain why pieces of the a/c are found at such a distance.

Could this be?

[ukatlantic]

At the moment everything is pure speculation, however, if all the backup computer systems shorted out as well as the main computer then even if they had the RAM Air Turbine deployed it could be possible that the essential instruments still wouldnt work - although they do have analogue VHSI and Airspeed indicators so they they ware not totally disorientated.  Unfortunately until the 2 'black boxes' are found we may never know what caused such a terrbile loss of life. 

[bigdogshark62]

Unfortunately until the 2 'black boxes' are found we may never know what caused such a terrbile loss of life. 

And just as unfortunate, because of the location, it's possible we may never be able to find the black boxes. 

Just wondering, as the 'Buses are "Fly-by-wire" technology, is there a way to control the aircraft without electircs, aside from just using trim?  Some aircraft have hydraulic backups, and some have cable backups, but I don't know if Airbus does or not.  And whether or not it would have even helped in this instance. 

[thedr2]

although they do have analogue VHSI and Airspeed indicators so they they ware not totally disorientated.

I didn't know that! It makes perfect sense though, so long as they have some light to shine on it.

I don't think they got dissorientated anymore though, as the evidence so far is pointing towards the plane breaking up before hitting the water, and I can't see that happening with simple dissorientation.

[islandhopper]

The "bus" does have a system in the event of computer failure its called mechanical backup - rudder for roll and a trimmable horizontal stab for pitch , you can land like this (VERY hard) but it is designed to control the aircraft whilst you get a computer back on line.
All aircraft have emergency torches in case of light failure and most if not all pilots carry their own personal one.

[oggie84]

Apprantly 'new' Airbus planes carry redundant systems, so if one should fail, a back-up system would take over. Their are many redundant systems on these types of aircraft so even if alot of major systems went down at the same time these should take over very quickly.

There seems to be alot of theories floating around, many mentioned on here and plauseable. another one i heard is that lighting stuck the fuel tanks and the plane exploded. Apparantly the FAA issued a warning a few years ago to Airbus saying that the fuel tanks could be exploded by lighting strikes on this type of aircraft and to sort this issue out! Did AF check this?!

Another theory was that the tropical storm was so intense it literally flipped the plane over and sent it into an un-recoverable dive. Diving at such a speed and then some, would rip the plane apart causing the widespread debris that was discovered.

My thoughts are with every connected to this disaster and i pray they died instantaneously so they didn't feel any pain.

[MRFREAK]

Im not so technical about aircrafts like you guys, that i can join this conversation.

But, instead i will send my thoughts to the families and friends that also have been struck by this sad Air France story.

My condolence and thoughts to the people who has been left behind.

Mr.Freak

[Filippo]

Although I fully trust planes, This summer I have to follow my Dad on some Business Trips in Asia and we decided to try AF (usually I fly Luftansa) and the booking system says that we are going to travel always on A330 200!

[thedr2]

Although I fully trust planes, This summer I have to follow my Dad on some Business Trips in Asia and we decided to try AF (usually I fly Luftansa) and the booking system says that we are going to travel always on A330 200!

I wouldn't worry if I were you. Air France's flights with A330s number in the hundreds of thousands (possibly even millions), and 1 flight out of those has crashed. You're more likely to be killed travelling to the airport. Have fun! 

[Filippo]

Thanks!

I wish you all a good summer!

[Dorito_25]

Thanks! But I'm not in Summer  My winter has just started, but lucky it isn't cold!

I'm still not hearing as much news any more about this flight. I have heard that they have found some sort of wreckage but the main news in the flu.

I don't think they have found the main body of the aircraft, just jet fuel (I think).

I have watched several Air Crash Investgation shows and one of them was a crash into the sea. They said that the Blackboxes only had 30 days to run on its own battery power when it is in water. This was in the 1980's. Do the blackboxes still run for 30 days or has it been changed to last longer in the last 20 years?

[estair]

yes one month only!

[DSimm626]

I think the beacon will work for just 30 days but the info in the black boxes will last much longer if stumbled upon after the beacon goes dead.

In this case if they don't find them before the beacon goes dead they wont ever find them.

[carloscarlos]

they are no saying on sky news that there a preliminary report shows there was a autopilot malfunction... ...how can they just speculate this with no evidence?!

[Sami]

There seems to be alot of theories floating around, many mentioned on here and plauseable. another one i heard is that lighting stuck the fuel tanks and the plane exploded. Apparantly the FAA issued a warning a few years ago to Airbus saying that the fuel tanks could be exploded by lighting strikes on this type of aircraft and to sort this issue out! Did AF check this?!

That's not even remotely possible, I'd say. And if it would be, the same would then apply for each and every other aircraft type in the world as fuel systems in Airbus and other major airliners are rather identical.


The latest info directs to some fault in the attitude/speed/reference computers which then triggered a number of other faults. But what caused that is rather unknown yet. Probably the failure of the primary flight instruments (with disconnection of AP+A/THR which is normal in such case) may have lead to uncontrollable flight situation (=loss of situational awareness?) in heavy weather.

[Dorito_25]

Yeah. That's what I heard and think.

The search groups are gtting closer to the main body (piece of debris) of the aircraft (if there is one) as they have found bodies in the ocean. I can't believe that this crash actually happened. You don't hear much about planes crashing these days. Well not where I'm from.

[Filippo]

You don't hear much about planes crashing these days. Well not where I'm from.

Qantas had a month or two were planes really went close to crashing. Luckily it didn't happen.