Posted on 07/31/2011 9:31:55 AM PDT by lbryce
"What do you think? What do you think? What should we do?"
The 37-year-old Air France co-pilot with over 6,000 flying hours was running out of ideas as a stall alarm bellowed through the Airbus cockpit for the sixth time in exactly two minutes.
His junior colleague with two years on the job was already in despair as he battled to control the jet's speed and prevent it rocking left to right in pitch darkness over the Atlantic, on only his second Rio de Janeiro-Paris trip as an A330 pilot.
"I don't have control of the plane. I don't have control of the plane at all," the younger pilot, 32, said.
The captain was not present and it was proving hard to get him back to the cockpit, where his more than 11,000 hours of flying experience were badly needed.
"So is he coming?" the senior co-pilot muttered, according to a transcript released on Friday. Light expletives were edited out of the text here and elsewhere, according to people familiar with the probe into the mid-Atlantic crash on June 1, 2009.
The 58-year-old captain and former demonstration pilot had left 10 minutes earlier for a routine rest. In his absence the plane had begun falling at more than 200 km (125 miles) an hour.
"Hey what are you --," he said on entering the cockpit.
"What's happening? I don't know, I don't know what's happening," replied the senior co-pilot, sitting on the left.
With the benefit of black boxes hauled up 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) from the ocean floor just two months ago, investigators now say the aircraft had stopped flying properly and entered a hazardous stall, as its 3,900 square feet (362 sq metres) of wings gasped for air.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.reuters.com ...
There’s going to be a lot of Sunday armchair QB’ing on this one. My two cents? They were in a stall situation and didn’t realize it. They hit the water almost flat (tail a bit down).
I don’t think these guys had a clue what their airspeed was.
I don’t think these guys had a clue what their airspeed was.
No mention of throttling up (whether they did or not)? I’d like read a full transcript of what was said, the media accounts of this are too disjointed. Journalists write what they think is important, and it’s pretty clear that they don’t know much about anything. (Journalism is the special olympics of college majors.)
So true. As much as I respect them in some venues, their Special Forces, for instance, the French are just so damn French. Honestly, I don’t understand how they can stand it. It’s like this all the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aoqvq0Btn1c&feature=related
It didn’t sound that way to me.
It sounded like the plane was not responding and the instruments were having a serious malfunction...systemic
Two things of possible error stand out:
Captain coming in earlier rather than later
and why no response to the first stall warning...crickets
The rest they sounded reasonable to me but the bird just wouldn’t respond
Is it known what the final descent rate was? Still something like 125 mph?
Semi agree. Pitch dark. Ice jammed instruments. Conflicting data from those that worked (perhaps partially, instruments get crazy if sensor ports blocked with ice then starts to melt away).
What difference does it make if you're the captain of a passenger jet with hundreds of people aboard?
Your break time comes up, you take a break. That's it.
Flying without visual on instruments that are not working is virtually impossible. The only thing that could possibly have saved them is the experienced captain’s intuition. He should have been at the controls as soon as he entered the cockpit.
Is it known what the final descent rate was? Still something like 125 mph?
That’s airspeed, not descent rate...and an almost fully fueled Airbus with no flaps is probably quite close to stall speed at 125 knots (not MPH).
Oh, geez. I hate flying already, this didn’t help. I only fly about once every 2 years, home to visit my family. And I am anxiety-ridden and convinced I’m about to die from the minute that plane leaves the ground till we land again and come to a complete halt.
Wow, that destroys the breakup in flight theory. What was the visibility?
Of course!
It's stated clearly in his union contract.
Someone fought for his right to a break.
Fly by wire, die by software.
I suggest alcohol. Lots of alcohol.
Or Xanax.
They had a reliable backup instrument for airspeed, altitude, and attitude, but didn't use it.
Greyhound, THAT was funny.
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