Air France tail found. Wow looks like a clean break....

[ultrarunner]

Is the black box located in or near the tail on an A330?

The boxes are likely located in the tail-cone section, forward of the APU and aft of the aft-pressure bulkhead. But no, not in the tail.

 

[Princedietrich]

It is unlikely that they will be able to gleam much info from this piece alone. One piece of a puzzle doesn't paint a picture. What they need is the magic boxes and the worlds most talented deep sea salvige teams will be on scene in a few short hours;
The Navy.

True, they won't be able to get the whole picture but they'll be able to get one very important aspect of it. By looking at the fracture points and the overall amount of damage, they'll be able to tell if it came off in flight and then gravity did the rest, or if it came off as a result of a high-energy impact with the water. Won't tell them everything, but it will at least point the direction they need to move in.

 

[boknowsASA]

Here is the tail of an A-320 which recently crashed on a pre-delivery test flight. Considering all the debris in the water, I imagine this tail stayed with the airplane and broke off during impact. It looks very similar to the AF tail; therefore I don't see why the A-330's tail couldn't have broken off at impact as well.

When did this happen?

 

[Captain X]

When did this happen?

That was pretty recent...like in the last 6 months or so I think.

 

[Colonel Savage]

...and everyone at work wonders why I wish we had Boeings .....

PHXFLYR

Amen brother!

 

[UALRATT]

When did this happen?

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/unusual-attitude/2009/02/air-new-zealand-airbus-a320-cr.html

Accident occurred on November 28, 2008

Get use to google.com

 

[Colonel Savage]

Post deleted.....since I just caught myself speculating before the facts are in.

How very good of you, now allow me....

My AA 777-flying neighbor says a high-up Hamas figure was onboard. Hmmmmm.....

 

[PHXFLYR]

Reality Check:

Both of the 737 accidents you mention (Colorado Springs and PIT), occurred before much was known of the 'hardover rudder' situation involving the 737. A/C have now been retro-fitted to help prevent the problem and crew training on such a situation.

And, there has been incidents of a hardover rudder with 737s and NO crashes.

Now, think for a minute; the rudder of a Boeing airplane slams 'full deflection' to one side, and the a/c is still flyable and even more important, the tail stays attached to the a/c. And, according to the NTSB (and Airbus), an F/O walks the rudder (side-to-side, full scale or near full scale, AA587, NY), and the tail just 'snaps off' the a/c.

Again, I ask you, just think about for a minute??? Any questions??

For what it worth,

PD

Excellent post and exactly the point I was getting ready to make. I believe the airline that was involved in the 737 hardover incident where the crew managed to recover was Eastwind Airlines out of GSO. The Captain on that flight and I flew at the same commuter airline many years ago in Northern Maine. Sharp pilot, even back then. Believe he's with JetBlue today.


PHXFLYR

 

[ackattacker]

My first thought is midair breakup in turbulence. I would have thought that if the tail came off due to impact with the water, then it wouldn't be in such good shape. However it is easy to jump to conclusions. Composite structures don't necessarily get all mangled and twisted during an impact like aluminum does. They either break or don't. We'll have to wait for the experts.

 

[OurMoney1]

I disagree. I bet someone much smarter than us can figure out quite a bit about what caused the tail to come off and infer a lot about what happened. Those investigators are pretty sharp.

(BTW Glean = gather. Gleam = glow.)

I doubt even an expert can figure out if the tail fell off first from just this piece of wreckage alone. Without other pieces, FDR, and the supporting FOQWA data you are largely in the arena of speculation.

I agree that we have come miles in rebuilding these scenarios but drawing conclusions from a photo alone is really going out on a limb.