[Map Kernow]

This is an obvious red herring. Wake vortices sink and spread outward from the path of the plane that generates them (although wind will affect it).

This latest scenario to attempt to vindicate the apparent "Holy Grail" of a "mechanical failure" explanation for Fl. 587 apparently derives from a comment one of the pilots made on the voice recorder before the crash. I'd like to know what the exact words were. I'd also like to know if a pilot would normally open the engine throttles full out, the way these pilots allegedly did or tried to do, in response to such turbulence. I don't claim to be a pilot, but I've been in a plane going through turbulence many times before, and I don't ever recall the pilot trying to "gun it" through the bumps.

[John H K]

Well, perhaps more accurately, the casing is damaged meaning the interface is damaged, but the recorder itself is fine....they got the data off the FDR today.

A lot of weird mechanical or structural crap has downed or damaged airplanes.

[justlurking]

I'd also like to know if a pilot would normally open the engine throttles full out, the way these pilots allegedly did or tried to do, in response to such turbulence.

I'd have to review the timing of the events, but I expect that the pilots spooled up the engines to max power in response to controllability problems. If the plane is wallowing and not responding to control inputs, the instinctive reaction is to increase airspeed by lowering the nose and increasing power because that's the sign of an imminent stall.

I don't claim to be a pilot, but I've been in a plane going through turbulence many times before, and I don't ever recall the pilot trying to "gun it" through the bumps.

In cruise, reducing power is the proper response. All planes have what is called a "manuevering speed", which is at the top of the green arc on the airspeed indicator and the beginning of the yellow (caution) arc.

At manuevering speed, full deflection of the controls will not overstress the airframe. Also, turbulent air will toss the plane around, but will not over-stress the plane because the wings and control services (like the tail) will stall before a structural failure will occur. If you are near the ground, this loss of lift is a problem, but at altitude you can still recover.

This flight was still at low altitude in a climb profile. They were almost certainly not exceeding the manuevering speed. That's why this whole thing about wake turbulence is bogus, unless they can conclusively prove that there was already a flaw that made the plane vulnerable.