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>>"Numerous pilots who have commented on the accident confess to being perplexed over the possible on-board sequence. <<

All pilots on this thread are also perplexed, but that doesn't mean just because we are perplexed it must mean a terrorist attack

No way are we going to make that leap.

We base our opinion on experience, experience gleaned from years of flying and years of being around when brother pilots packed it in for God-knows-what-reason.

While we initially may consider ourselves immortal and incapable of committing errors (Hollywood has that part right), after our first tour and the harsh lesson's learned, in our hearts we now know we can make mistakes and there are situations/emergencies that even the best pilots can't fly their way out of.

When a mishap occurs the first thing we want to do is blame something besides the pilot. However, truth be known, mishaps due to mechanical flaws are rare (about 15% if I recall correctly from Univ. of Southern California Flight Safety & Systems Management training), and virtually the rest are pilot error.

Bottom line, we are holding back from passing judgment on the cause because we know the world of aviation, we know what happens in a mishap sequence, and we know initial reports from "witnesses" and untrained first responders and by-standers are notoriously unreliable. Heck, most people can't tell you why an aircraft flies, let alone what may have contributed to a mishap.

We KNOW mishaps are confusing, emotional, irrational (in our mind), and each mishap is perplexing because a) we knew the pilot/aircrew were trained and certified and are perplexed as to why it happened to such a good pilot/aircrew, and/or b) how could such-and-such a system (or system of systems) fail? Never or rarely happened before.

Look, it's not hard to understand that things break, often at the wrong time and for no apparent reason. I'll bet you've had a car that broke-down for no obvious reason, from a failure of a part that isn't supposed to break/fail, and as you stand on the side of the road, trained mechanic or not, you are perplexed as to why and why now.

Rant off/

Hey Gunrunner...

Just got here (only a weenie PPL, but that's something). I'll be checking on Avsig.com in the morning to see what some preety dang knowledgeable line pilots have to say.

Speculation is somewhat useful, but the noise to signal ratio is usually pretty high.

And yes, "communicate" is LAST in the Oh $#!t list. What IS ATC really going to do for you? Hit the Autoland button? :-)