Egyptair Flight 804 Crash: Assume Terrorism Until Conclusively Proven Otherwise

Frontpagemag.com ^ | May 23,2016 | Joseph Klein

[xzins]

If in war there is an attack that is exactly the type of attack the enemy uses, doesn’t it make more sense to assume the enemy is responsible?

[T-Bone Texan]

You sent me to the interwebz to read up on TATP.

Says it is very sensitive to impact, temp change, and pressure. It does not require a detonator.

What, in your opinion, would be a triggering device? I am guessing not a cell phone.

[Spktyr]

Over the Med, it’s not unusual for the to be delays in raising the next controller when flying to North Africa, I’m told. There are also conflicting reports on whether the pilot did successfully raise the over-water controller.

That said, the ACARS system time stamps those messages at 0026 to 0029 Zulu. The radios (or critical parts thereof) are in the avionics bay that was being eaten by fire when ACARS went off the air. The transponder went off the air at 0033Z, probably when its control module was destroyed by fire. Since the A320 is set up to be dynamically stable, even with the computers out, it could keep flying straight and level for a while until outside forces (wind, etc) upset it. Which apparently happened at 0037Z.

Something else people seem to be missing is that this is a fully computerized, fly-by-wire plane. It carries a backup battery pack (which I’m pretty sure is under the cockpit in a late-mark A320) to maintain power to the flight controls and computers if both engines fail and their power goes offline. There have been a rash of those battery packs going on fire in airplanes lately. The Boeing 787 has had the most high profile incidents of late:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_787_Dreamliner_battery_problems

[OKSooner]

Yes, Petraeus has betrayed us. The difference between him and the Clintons is that the Clintons are professional grifters of the highest order, having been raised that way.

Piss poor excuse that it is, Petraeus doesn't even have that to mitigate his actions. At long last, he's even worse than they are because he does know better.

One good thing about these interesting times is at least that the masks are coming off.

[Starboard]

Assume terrorism

*************

This is a case of Occam’s Razor (i.e.,the simplest answer is most often correct.

[JLAGRAYFOX]

You make some good points........however I am not an Airbus expert....but I am a B707 & 747 maintenance expert. I have also worked in aviation maintenance for too many years to mention, wth a number of airlines and OEMs, mainly Boeing!!!

But, knowing that the A320 aircraft is a “fly-by-wire” aircraft and, although it is a fully safe operating system under normal operational modes, a major destruction of computor components and inputs can quickly cause severe loss of active or prevent manual flight control!!! I get nervous when I note that all smoke/fire activity as sent from the “ACARS” inputs is located in the same area...the cockpit, cockpit windows, the left foward lavatory and the E&E lctrical/avionics, control compartment where the flight contol computors are located.

Now......my input is just me thinking out loud....but I am 100% sure that Airbus Engineering knows exactly what happened, based on the input from “ACARS”. If this model of Airbus aircraft has had a long list of these type failures, I could see keeping an open mind. But, no such history trail exists. All are silent on both the Captain & First Officer & no “Mayday” call from either of the flight crew. Airbus can quickly calculate the ACARS failure messages in a time lapse and know whether sufficient time was available for a crew “Mayday” radio call or not!!! Like I say Airbus has a darn good idea exactly what happened on the doomed airplane and, I believe, they believe their aircraft was not al fault & terrorism is at fault.....set off by either one or both of the flight crew or, an invader into the cockpit or lavatory, setting off the bomb device of in a strategic location. I stiil smell the Muslim Brotherhood/ISIS cartel are the villians of this massive planned and successfully carried out massacre...and, they for obvious reasons of the Obama/Clinton adoration of MB/ISIS want to remain silent. We shall see, although, Airbus and the involved governments, including the USA, will spin this incident out over a prolonged period of time. The truth and timely relaease of such is not at the top of the list for the media, the governments, the aircraft manufacturer. The public, and, sadly, the relatives and loved ones of those murdered on this ill fated airplane take it in the shorts once again!!!!

[plain talk]

It is, however, more likely that this is another SwissAir Flight 111 incident where faulty electronics or wiring caused a fire.

Possibly. But it seems the crew would have had time to get off a distress signal. There are also witnesses that saw the plane blow up.

[Spktyr]

Obviously at this point, we’re speculating. But based on what info we do have, it seems like there was no sign of fire in the cockpit, no smoke. The fire was all behind bulkheads and panels and it’s possible the pilots were trying to figure out these error messages on their screen that wouldn’t have seemed to have any real cause. By the time they figured out that there was a problem, their radios could have been out of commission.

People have seen crash planes ‘blow up’ before where that didn’t actually happen. One case in point happened in Texas a while back:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Express_Flight_2574

Dozens of people reported it blew up. It didn’t.

[stig]

For those reasons, it only makes sense to assume terrorism unless it's proven that it isn't.

I will coin the term. You are expressing the "Trump Doctrine" here.

[Spktyr]

Just FYI, none of the ACARS alarms were actually *in* the cockpit. All the alarms were areas behind bulkheads initially and except for the lavatory smoke warning are in areas you *cannot* get access to while the aircraft is in flight, at least not without setting off all sorts of other alarms. The alarm zones are around, behind, and under the cockpit, but nothing actually *in* the cockpit while the plane’s ACARS was still working.

[bert]

amen

[JLAGRAYFOX]

You are absolutely 100% correct...nothing happpend in the cockpit whatsoever was out of turn....until the systems in the E&E cpmpartment located below the cockpit failed totally, casuing th loss of the aircraft. IMHO, a bomb went off in eithr the forward left lavatory or in the E&E compartment itslf. Shucks, I dunno...maybe Obama, Clinton, & the Democrats can blame this one on “gun control”...too!!! We live in a world inhabitated by maniacs & madmen!!! And....sadly folks...the folks are asleep at the wheel!!!

[Spktyr]

Look at the timeline. Bomb or incendiary in lav doesn’t work against the ACARS message log. Bomb in avionics bay doesn’t work either, but an *incendiary* would.