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To: george76

This is looking like pitot freeze up.
The air trapped in the system expands with altitude, effectively fooling the autopilot that an over-speed has occurred, and commands a climb to reduce speed. That only causes the trapped air to falsely shows a additional speed increase, thus commanding more pitch up.
Finally the Autopilot gives up, and disengage.
Leaving the pilot hauling back on the yolk to reduce the false over-speed.
The angle of attack is so large the they get an engine compressor stall and the airplane,yaws into the dead engine, with a swept back wing then stalls and the plane enters a flat spin, possibly on its back.

It happened before , have a look at “Birgenair Flight 301”
( and that was a Boeing )


20 posted on 01/30/2015 7:58:27 AM PST by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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To: Robe

Just want to correct a few things you wrote - it still may be a system error, but not as you describe.

The pitot tube usually has two openings, the front entrance and the drain hole. If just the front entrance is blocked and the drain hole remains open, then a normal airspeed indicator will read “0” as the speed. If both holes are blocked, then the airspeed indicator begins to act like an altimeter, meaning that as the aircraft climbs the “airspeed” will indicate an increase in the what is shown on the dial (contrary to what typically happens with airspeed when you pitch up and begin to climb) and when the aircraft descends the “airspeed” will indicate a decrease in the what is shown on the dial, again opposite what is expected. This messes up a pilot’s normal cross-check of the attitude indicator and can introduce confusion. A quick cross-check of the altimeter against the attitude indicator will usually be enough for a good pilot to isolate which of the instruments are providing false information, but that can certainly be tough when it is dark, stormy, frantic and loud in the cockpit.

We are of course assuming old-school steam gauges, but the same cross-check principles apply with modern MFDs and speed/altitude tapes likely found on the Airbus. As far as the effects of a completely frozen pitot tube and drain hole on the modern, theoretically redundant systems and autopilot on an Airbus, that I do not know, but there are obviously scenarios where it can result in system confusion and failure that can ultimately result in a crash.


34 posted on 01/30/2015 8:58:53 AM PST by cliniclinical (space for rent)
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To: Robe

“This is looking like pitot freeze up.
The air trapped in the system expands with altitude, effectively fooling the autopilot that an over-speed has occurred, and commands a climb to reduce speed. That only causes the trapped air to falsely shows a additional speed increase, thus commanding more pitch up.
Finally the Autopilot gives up, and disengage.
Leaving the pilot hauling back on the yolk to reduce the false over-speed.
The angle of attack is so large the they get an engine compressor stall and the airplane,yaws into the dead engine, with a swept back wing then stalls and the plane enters a flat spin, possibly on its back.”

^This +1 Air data sensors conflicting with other attitude data sensors confusing fly by wire systems. Airbus has a problem. I’m glad I gave up travel by air. I won’t get on an Airbus again unless it’s a dire emergency. If it ain’t Boeing, I’m not going.


46 posted on 01/30/2015 2:41:18 PM PST by VTenigma (The Democratic party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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