Air France

airbusfxr

Well-Known Member
Air France 447 was lost somewhere around the equator in a major storm. Air Industrie A330 is a twin engine, GE CF6, medium-long range jetliner that holds 300 people. It is basically an upgrade A300 like we operate.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Debris found

Horrible story. Authorities believe it happened so fast that they didn't even have time for an SOS.

I had no idea these planes send out automated messages.
 

tieguy

Banned
Debris found

Horrible story. Authorities believe it happened so fast that they didn't even have time for an SOS.

I had no idea these planes send out automated messages.

must be where we got telematix. :happy-very:

I guess one question that will come up will be whether the pilots were sleeping with the auto pilot engaged. I'm surprised this happened. thought these planes could fly over any storms.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
I hope they get a hold of the flight recorders.

I heard one "expert" say they probably wouldn't because of the depth and undersea terrain in the area.

And I heard another "expert" say he expected they would be recovered.
 

unionman

Well-Known Member
must be where we got telematix. :happy-very:

I guess one question that will come up will be whether the pilots were sleeping with the auto pilot engaged. I'm surprised this happened. thought these planes could fly over any storms.
I doubt it very seriously that the pilots were sleeping. They had there hands full Im sure. the Airbus tail is made of composite material which has been known to break off as in the American Airlines A300 in New York shortly after 911.
The storms in that area are known to blow up to 50 thousand feet. There aint no going over that.
 

unionman

Well-Known Member
The Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic killing 228 may have stalled after pilots slowed down too much as they encountered turbulence, new information suggests.

Airbus is to send advice on flying in storms to operators of its A330 jets, Le Monde reported today. It would remind crews of the need to maintain adequate thrust from the engines and the correct attitude, or angle of flight, when entering heavy turbulence.

Pilots slow down aircraft when entering stormy zones of the type encountered by Air France Flight 447 early on Monday as it was flying from Rio to Paris.

The fact that the manufacturer of the aircraft is issuing new advice indicates that investigators have evidence that the aircraft slowed down too much, causing a high-altitude aerodynamic stall. This would explain why the aircraft apparently broke up at altitude over the Atlantic.

Jean Serrat, a retired airline pilot, told Agence-France Presse: "If the BEA [accident investigation bureau] is making a recommendation so early, it is because they know very well what happened. If they know what happened, they have a duty to make a recommendation, for safety reasons ... The first thing you do when you fly into turbulence is to reduce speed to counter its effects. If you reduce speed too much you stall."

Although the flight recorders lie about 12,000ft below the ocean surface, the BEA has data on the last four minutes of Flight 447, transmitted automatically by satellite to Air France's base at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

A stall, in which the wings lose lift and the aircraft becomes uncontrollable, would be consistent with the sequence of events that have leaked to the media from the Air France data. According to this, the first anomaly was the disconnection of the automatic pilot and computerised flight controls. This means that the pilots were hand-flying the aircraft.

It is not known whether Captain Marc Dubois, 58, was at the controls or just his two co-pilots, who were in their 30s.

A stall at 35,000ft – the altitude at which Flight 447 was cruising – is hard to recover from in still air. In the heart of a furious tropical storm at night, it could be near impossible. High-altitude stalls claimed several aircraft in the early days of jet aircraft.

Speculation over the fate of Flight 447 continued to rage as ships began trawling the crash area, spread over a 200-mile stretch. Debris, including airliner seats, has been identified from the air, about 800 miles off the Brazil coast. No bodies have been spotted

Nelson Jobim, Brazil's Defence Minister, said that a 12-mile-long slick of fuel had been found under the planned route of the Airbus. This meant it was improbable that there had been a fire or explosion, because the jet fuel would have ignited, he said.French experts dismissed this theory, noting that an explosion could fracture the fuselage and cause the break-up of an aircraft without igniting the fuel, which is mainly carried in the wings


Source
 
Last edited by a moderator:

drewed

Shankman
Its a tragic event, and Im not trying to take away from that but I was wondering with the recent airline incidents, which plane in the AMTs minds are the safest to fly in? (without regard to the actual maint to it since it would very from company)
 

unionman

Well-Known Member
Its a tragic event, and Im not trying to take away from that but I was wondering with the recent airline incidents, which plane in the AMTs minds are the safest to fly in? (without regard to the actual maint to it since it would very from company)
747-400. It has four engines, its easy to fly, and its a boeing.
 
Top