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GermanWings a320

Started by farrokh747, Tue, 24 Mar 2015 11:09


OmniAtlas

#1
Another airbus crash from cruise level...not a good day.

http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/d-aipx/#5d42675

CarlBB

Just been reading avherald during lunch. very, very sad news.

nicolas

Very sad news.
Frozen pitot tubes again??

Nic

United744

Looks bad... Looking carefully at the FR24 reported speeds (remembering it is GROUND SPEED) the aircraft descended at approximately VMO all the way.

It also does not appear to have deviated off track.

The final report will be an interesting read.  :'(


United744


farrokh747

Is the report on AirAsia Flight 8501 out? I can't seem to find it online anywhere....

Balt

The 8501 report is not released, it may never be. Developing countries often take a slightly different approach to freedom of information. This one of course will be released in line with ICAO guidelines: A first report will be released 30 days after the crash, and the final report up to about a year later. Given the DFDR has been retrieved already, and given there will be substantial pressure by first world families who demand to know what happened, I suspect there will be more than just the usual information blurb in the first report.

But that's all speculation, as is the pprune party in progress...

Cheers

- Balt

martin

Quote from: BaltGiven the DFDR has been retrieved already
Is that official? I read it was actually the voice recorder (and it was damaged).
Search for DFDR still going on, according to that press (i.e. not official either) article.
Or do they now have both?

Martin

United744

#10
Quote from: martin
Quote from: BaltGiven the DFDR has been retrieved already
Is that official? I read it was actually the voice recorder (and it was damaged).
Search for DFDR still going on, according to that press (i.e. not official either) article.
Or do they now have both?

Martin
They're talking about the AirAsia crash.

Official word from the French on the Germanwings crash is that the CVR is "damaged, but could still provide useful information", whilst the search for the FDR continues.

Hardy Heinlin

#11
The authorities yesterday said the descent took 8 minutes.

If we assume no large fluctuations in the descent rate, with a vertical descent distance of approximately 30000 ft, then the average fpm was about -3500 to -4500 fpm. That looks to me like a controlled rapid descent with gear down & speedbrakes.


|-|

falconeye

What I don't understand is, why they didn't send an emergency call or changed the Transponder code. If they had eight minutes, until they crashed, it should have been possible for them to do this. I cannot believe they were so busy they had no time to do this. So I assume after they began the descent, the pilots were either dead or unconscious at that time. I cannot find another explanation. The question is why? Just saw a picture of the DVR. It looks seriously damaged. Unbelievable everything. :'(

Hardy Heinlin

#13
Speculation: Smoke in the cockpit.

Guy

It is normal for a flight recorder to be damaged in a crash. However, the enclosure where the data are stored (semi-conductor memory or tape) is not supposed to be damaged inside either mechanically or by fire and is designed accordingly. Even if the recorder seems OK, the investigative authorities will never use the original recorder electronics to play back and retrieve the data to prevent erasure by damaged electronics.

Markus Vitzethum

> What I don't understand is

probably nobody understands this at the moment.

> So I assume after they began the descent

I don't want to speculate but personally my assumption is similar, thinking that the start of the descent was intentionally programmed, for whatever reason, and not discontinued, for whatever reason. (And I also think that there are more possible options, but see previous sentence.)

Markus

falconeye

I have of course not much experience with smoke. (I accidentaly was in the Düsseldorf airport, when there was this big fire back in the ninties. The smoke was horrible and you had to pay attention not to panic, because of this very strong plastic smell and the feeling  of not getting enough oxygen)But could smoke be so effective, that the pilots had no chance to grab their oxygen masks? I have doubts.

falconeye

Newest rumour. Broken window.

funkyhut

From the New York Times:
What We Know
The pilots did not issue a distress call or initiate any communication with air traffic controllers as the plane began its eight-minute descent.
Investigators have so far been unable to retrieve data from one black box, and the other was badly damaged and its memory card was missing.
The aircraft, an Airbus A320, was 24 years old but had no history of serious maintenance problems.
What We Don't Know
Whether the plane was flying on autopilot or under the manual control of crew members.
Why the plane descended after reaching its cruising altitude.
Whether the plane suffered any kind of technical failure.

A missing memory card? Can it pop out on impact or was it missing before the plane took off?
Greetings from the mountains of Northern Thailand (VTCC),
Chris Stanley.

martin

Quote from: HardyThat looks to me like a controlled rapid descent with gear down & speedbrakes.
That seems to be the current "consensus" on PPRuNe, too: rapid but not excessively so, and not outside normal parameters.

Quote from: HardySpeculation: Smoke in the cockpit.
Even mere fumes can be (far) worse than I had thought: see this quote on PPRuNe from a report of the German "Bundesstelle für Flugunfalluntersuchung" (Federal Air Accident Investigation Authority), concerning a Germanwing A319 at Cologne in December 2013.

Martin