More on the Germanwings crash
Facts learned today:
Witnesses who saw the plane right before the crash report it as having been intact. So a bomb catastrophic enough to blow part of the plane off could not have been the problem.
Despite the lack of a message from the pilots during the eight-minute descent, the instruments were still functioning well enough to have been “automatically relaying its altitude, airspeed and heading to air traffic control” the entire time. And yet there seems to have been no attempt by pilots to maneuver it, or even to slow it down. It crashed into the mountain at very high speed.
The plane was an Airbus A320, which is highly automated:
Last year an Airbus A321 owned by Lufthansa went into a sudden descent at 31,000ft, falling at the same rate ”“ 4,000ft per minute ”“ before the crew managed to regain control.
The European Air Safety Directive said in that incident the aircraft’s angle of attack sensors had become blocked and tricked the computer into thinking the aircraft was about to stall.
The EASA said that in that situation: “The flight control laws order a continuous nose down pitch rate that, in a worst case scenario, cannot be stopped with backward sidestick inputs, even in the full backward position.
“This condition, if not corrected, could result in loss of control of the aeroplane.”
That would be my leading theory at the moment, because of the rate of fall and the fact that it’s a very similar plane of the same series. Although the authorities keep saying terrorism is unlikely, I certainly don’t think it can be ruled out, either. Cockpit intrusion? Also, the names of the pilot and copilot have not been released, and that could have some significance although I wouldn’t bet on it.
It was initially reported that the black box had been found missing its memory card, but that report has been contradicted:
The director of the lead investigating agency said today that they have recovered an audio file from the black box of the downed Germanwings flight but have not found the second black box from the Airbus A320 that crashed in the French Alps.
This comes after French Prime Minister Francois Hollande said at an earlier news conference when he said that crews had found the exterior of the black box but not the module that contains the memory equipment, though a the director of the Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA) went on to deny any such discovery.
“We have not localized the black box,” said BEA Director Rémi Jouty. “We have not found any debris of the black box and in the history of air accidents we know about … [we] don’t remember any recorder broken into little pieces.”
I really really hope the audio file yields much useful information, and that the flight recorder is also found.
Neo, I didn’t know that about the previous descent incidence, but it does fit in line with what I’ve heard about Airbus systems, which seem to make it very difficult to impossible for the pilots to manually override. If true, then that’s a major design flaw.
However, it is also well in line with the current millennial generation’s thinking that such computer systems are flawless and are to be trusted 100%.
I think GPS receivers and air traffic control can provide independent readings. If the plane’s sensors are reporting one thing and these other sources are reporting another, then it should be possible to switch over to the separate sources.
Eight minutes of silence.
A little odd that the recorders have not been located; even if they are not readily accessible due to terrain.
The Air France crash in the Caribbean area a few years ago resulted from an iced over pitot system which caused faulty altitude/airspeed readings. I have not heard of problems with angle of attack (AOA) sensors.
I have a friend who is an Airbus 320 Captain, and a staunch defender of the plane, even though he is a Seattle native. (I like Boeings) It will be interesting to get his input.
The airplane is highly automated–more so than virtually any other. It is true that the actions of the pilots are severely limited if there is an occurrence that does not fit the template.
European engineering reflects the philosophy of the Nanny state. “We know best”.
flightaware data: (BTW a great flight tracking service, I use it all the time)
de.flightaware.com/live/flight/GWI9525/history/20150324/0835Z/LEBL/EDDL/tracklog
Drudge has a link to a NYT story; “Germanwings Pilot Was Locked Out of Cockpit Before Crash in France”
Only two possibilities; an unconscious/dead pilot in the cabin or that the pilot flying the plane intended it to crash.