Air France Flight Missing

[Amish RakeFight]

I wonder if we got anyone with some decent amount of A330 time here that could chime in? Just for discussion sake.

pppppprunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnne

 

[Erlanger]

Here's the weather data for the time of the Air France flight.

http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/

 

[Dornier 335]

Pretty self-explanatory, I thought, although probably not to someone who named himself after a stillborn German push-pull, but I digress.

I wasn't referring to your cute username but to your indecent somewhat xenophobic and derogative comment. With 34 years of age as you claim it is frightning to read a comment like this from an adult. I suggest you read Axel's well-put lines and think before you post your ignorance.

Regarding my username (if I need to explain myself) you better put in a little bit more research instead doing a quick read on Wikipedia. You sound so tough hiding behind your username, I'd like to meet you in the carpark next time I am in ORD or any other god-forsaken airport.

Moral of the story kid, use some common-sense and decency. Lots to learn you have ...

 

[Dornier 335]

...

I've done a fair amount of over-water flying. Many times late at night, the thunderstorms over the Atlantic and/or Caribbean are still towering to 50,000+ feet and have quite a bit of updraft/downdraft activity with heavy lightning but are NOT producing enough rain to give you a return on the radar. D*mn near stumbled into one in the Lear over the Gulf back in January coming back to Miami from Mexico, just a little over 100 miles offshore of Miami. I JUST happened to be looking outside (was looking for the outline of the coast at night - it's a nice sight) and the lightning highlighted enough of it for us to split the tops of two cells - we were at 43,000 feet, less than 10 miles from the cells when we caught it, the tops were another good 5k-7k above us. There was absolutely NOTHING on radar, at any tilt. We got lucky; if I had been inside the airplane continuously, we'd have bounced right into one of them.

Lear70 A similar thing happened to me. Not a night, during daylight flying mostly in IMC at 37,000 feet. I had checked the weather before we departed - no significant echos, turned the wx radar on with the turbulence mode (Honeywell) - no echos, and all of a sudden a return pops up right in front of us (less than 5 NM) impossible to circumnavigate. Plane went into a couple 90 degree banks, icing, etc. It really scared the sh!te outta me.

What's amazing is that no echos in convective activity can put you in severe turbulence. I don't remember that part in Archie Trembel's (spelling?) radar course...

 

[OurMoney1]

This is all speculation which, as some posters have noted, is useless until the prelim comes out, assuming they ever find the FDR and CVR.

From my rudimentary knowledge of Airbus systems and RAT knowledge from the 3 aircraft I've flown that have one, probably no radar with a complete electrical failure (which is the only thing that SHOULD deploy the RAT - complete loss of AC power to the retaining mechanism on the firing pin with Weight Off Wheels).

However, that's not what gets my attention. There's a couple critical things in that information about the avionics failure chain, IF it's correct, that happened SO fast (less than 4 minutes from first ACARS burst), I wouldn't lean towards a radar malfunction being out long enough to let them wander into a supercell t-storm:

1. ISIS failure. That's a BIG problem. Integrated Standby Instrumentation System. This is ALL you have if you lose everything else. For the ISIS to go or at least have to reset itself, you'd have to have a BAD electrical system spike. The ISIS gets its power directly from its own internal battery, continuously trickle charged through one of the aircraft's primary electrical AC Buses as long as they have power. Even if primary AC power is lost, the battery should provide uninterrupted power to the ISIS. For whatever reason, it appears it may have faulted.

2. Primary and Secondary aileron flight control damper unit failure (PRIM1 and SEC1) with a simultaneous ADIRU failure (Air Data Inertial Reference Unit - what gives the Primary Flight Display your attitude, VSI, airspeed, and heading readouts among other things) fault and almost simultaneously with the ISIS fault (within 90-120 seconds according to that data stream) means that they were at least momentarily (and possibly longer) without ANY instrumentation. No PFD, no ISIS, nada, zero, zilch with a flight control problem...

3. All of that while trying to fight an airplane that had reverted to alternate law on the flight control systems? That would be eye watering enough without anything like severe turbulence associated with a thunderstorm to compound the problem.

I've done a fair amount of over-water flying. Many times late at night, the thunderstorms over the Atlantic and/or Caribbean are still towering to 50,000+ feet and have quite a bit of updraft/downdraft activity with heavy lightning but are NOT producing enough rain to give you a return on the radar. D*mn near stumbled into one in the Lear over the Gulf back in January coming back to Miami from Mexico, just a little over 100 miles offshore of Miami. I JUST happened to be looking outside (was looking for the outline of the coast at night - it's a nice sight) and the lightning highlighted enough of it for us to split the tops of two cells - we were at 43,000 feet, less than 10 miles from the cells when we caught it, the tops were another good 5k-7k above us. There was absolutely NOTHING on radar, at any tilt. We got lucky; if I had been inside the airplane continuously, we'd have bounced right into one of them.

Until (unless) we get the FDR and CVR data back, we won't know anything, but my gut instinct tells me they wandered into one of those by pure accident, radar on but no return...

Very well composed Lear 70! This helped close many loop holes I had regarding the Airbus logic. God rest them all, it must have been hell.

 

[b19]

My prayers and condolences for all the families left behind.

I have flown over Brazil numerous times and crossed only a handful of times in that part of the Atlantic, you really are on your own because there just isn't much traffic out in front of you, to give you a heads up for the nasty stuff that doesn't paint. I have also spent quite a bit of time swearing at perfectly good radar units that weren't painting crap. Staring out in the distance for reflections from the lighting that would show glimpses at night of monsters that would bounce my fat ... right out of the seat. I can't help but think there by the grace of God go I. So please be respectful of our fellow pilots, for I am sure they were doing everything humanly possible. May all those left behind know peace in their hearts.

 

[ACL65PILOT]

You know what, when ALPA puts out the fund for the lost crew members, I say all of us donate to it. Even a buck(euro) or two from everyone on this site will help these families.

Just remember a lot of people lost their lives, in whatever the probable cause turns out to be, in a horrible accident.

 

[instructordude]

Has "Sully" made any comments regarding the crash. I would not be suprised if he is asked to join the investigation due to his experience in and out of the Airbus fleet.

 

[flyboyike]

I wasn't referring to your cute username but to your indecent somewhat xenophobic and derogative comment. With 34 years of age as you claim it is frightning to read a comment like this from an adult. I suggest you read Axel's well-put lines and think before you post your ignorance.

Regarding my username (if I need to explain myself) you better put in a little bit more research instead doing a quick read on Wikipedia. You sound so tough hiding behind your username, I'd like to meet you in the carpark next time I am in ORD or any other god-forsaken airport.

Moral of the story kid, use some common-sense and decency. Lots to learn you have ...

I don't sound near as tough as you, now, do I? And if you are the summity of common sense and decency, the world is in real trouble.

 

[Andy Neill]

I have been pleased that the news reports have been fairly devoid of inane comments up to this point. And then I read this:

“The airplane was flying at 500 mph northeast and the air is coming at them at 100 mph,” said AccuWeather.com expert senior meteorologist Henry Margusity. “That probably started the process that ended up in some catastrophic failure of the airplane.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31057560/