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Latest update: 02/06/2011
- AF 447 crash - Brazil - France - plane crash
Two years on, the truth about the doomed AF447 flight
Turbulence, faulty instrument readings and a stalled engine. That could be the deadly combination of factors that caused Air France Flight 447 to crash en route from Brazil to Paris in June 2009. All 228 passengers and crew on board were killed. This new information comes from the black boxes of the plane's wreckage, recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic earlier this month.
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(14) Reactions
AF 447 - a casualty of Man vs Machine?
It's pitch black. No Visibility. Looking outside will tell you nothing. You have severe turbulence. Your "foolproof" computerised instuments seem to have gone haywire. Some readings are clearly impossible. Is this a computer failure? Which readings do you believe? Any? None? A stall warning sounds (false - but you don't know that), then another (this one isn't false - but you don't know that either). So many alarms and warnings. So much more happening than could be written here. Which flight mode is the computer operating in? What can you believe? If you know which instruments to trust you can work out what is happening, but if you feel that you can't trust the readings then you may as well be flying blindfolded. It's easy to criticise and cry "pilot error", but I wonder what percentage of pilots could have correctly identified and recovered the stall?
Look out the window
It is hard to believe that the pilots did not after 3+minutes of free fall;
1/ Look out the window
2/ Notice that the sound of the aircraft was some how not normal
3/ Look at position reference sytems ie are we moving forward?
4/ Atleast try another option rather than pulling up on the stick
5/ Get the captain on deck sooner
This was a massive human failure.
Tragic Human error event
Lack of experience. Poor flight training. Inadequate supervision.
I think all commercial pilots should be aerobatics endorsed so they have a clue as to what they should be doing in these situations
check your sources
Aircraft engines don't generally stall, it's the wings that do.
If it wasn't so tragic it would be funny
Stalled engine? Pah! Get someone who knows something (anything) about aviation to write these things. Aerodynamic stall, dummy.
Crash
Is there something that the BEA are not telling us?
Flight Data Recorder
If anyone knows whether FDR data on pitch re. A330-200, is captured directly from sensors on the sidestick or from sensors on the control surfaces - please advise.
Stalled engine?
An aerodynamic stall, which occurred on this flight, has nothing whatsoever to do with the engines.
reporter has no pants.
A 'stall' has nothing to do with the engine.
what
Really??? Do you even know what you are talking about?
af 447
doesn't anyone edit this? READ the BEA report--the engines operated perfectly til the plane hit the water. The AIRCRAFT entered an aerodynamic stall-there was no engine failure.
Stalled engine
Not true. All engines were responding to commands until the end of the recordings.
skewed views
You must be joking!! It is not just turbulence and faulty engine readings my friend. If that is all it takes everyday flights will be dropping out of the sky. Truth is the problem with human (pilot) component. Did anyone think why we did not get black boxes out until the judge was about to order involuntary manslaughter on air france?? Wht are we trying to coverup here?
Factual errors
There was no "stalled engine" on flight 447. The stall was an aerodynamic stall, the absence of lift from the wings. Both engines were operating without problems.