Posted on 06/01/2009 7:11:10 PM PDT by traumer
A commercial pilot has said he saw a "fire" on the Atlantic Ocean close to the route of a missing Air France plane.
The pilot, for TAMAirlines, said he spotted what appeared to be orange marks in the ocean near to where the jet went missing.
More follows...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
Specific to power, I would give the nod to Jet Jaguar’s explanation. However, specific to a computer or fiber optic problem on that Airbus, you’re screwed.
Previous threads indicated a problem with “tail separation”
in AB aircraft in response to severe stress loads.
Also, others hinted about composite contruction vs. metal when it comes to lighting strike resistance.
However, nearly everyone admits that this is first accident with this series of AB aircraft.
There is when electrical, computer, fiber optic, or radio go down.
This plane had to be flown as a “fly by wire,” unlike the Boeing 777. Airbus played with the design enough to make it impossible to not have the computer control everything all the time.
Hadn't heard that but it was when they first flew, so it could be.
“Tail strikes???”
I know the tails are made of carbon fiber which I do not trust. It is in Formula 1 cars and it is incredibly strong but it can shatter like...porcelain? or Corelle dinner plates.
I think the tail fin failed in bad weather or something.
Until something goes drastically wrong...
Just a few days ago I was watching a National Geographic
program about Airline crash investigations.
Even though I have been a private pilot and owned several
plans, this TV special scared the H out of me.
It was amazing how they recover most all of the pieces,
even from the sea floor, and put it all together.
There were total disasters caused by the simplest of
reasons, such as a short in the first class entertainment
system on an Air Canada? flight over the Atlantic.
It was a total loss, as the fire spread to the entire plane.
There were other examples of a simple valve failure throwing
the plane into violent uncontrollable rolls, crashing and killing all on board.
My last flights have been on Qatar Air A320s and A330s
between Vienna and Philippines.
No plans now to fly for quite some time.
Are there parachutes strapped to your seats, and do they eject?
Prayers for their families as well.
We flew Air France a few years ago coming back from Europe. The flight attendants were wonderful and very kind.
I hope it was not the same crew.
this is so awful
The Europeans do not know how, or care, to design seats that are of any comfort on overseas flights.
I used to do quite a few business trips from DC to Europe and while it got a little uncomfortable after nine to ten hours at least the Boeing aircraft were much better than the Airbus seats.
Half way over the pond in an Airbus and my butt would get numb.
That was Swiss Air flight 111.
“That was Swiss Air flight 111. “
Thanks for the correction.
The program was so frightening, I did not keep track
of the airlines involved.
The 2 from USA are from Houston...named Harris .
I seem to recall several issues with them... situations where the software went nuts and nearly caused disasters. I believe they're MUCH less safe than Boeing's.
No.
As I understand it, the flight was a “low pass” down the runway, and when the Captain added power for the go-around, the computers did not allow the engines to spool up, whereupon, the aircraft descended gracefully into the trees.
The computer programs were re-written.
It was not a crewless remote control test. It was a charter flight at the air show. There 133 on board that aircraft. 3 died in the crash.
The A-330 that flew itself into the trees was “pilot error” as well, according to the (Airbus and European) investigators. The pilot denies it to this day.
Pilot error is the investigator’s default explanation when either they can’t figure it out, or there is a big enough problem that it will take years to fix, since they don’t want to alarm the public.
Interesting...
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