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Could a Computer Glitch Have Brought Down Air France 447? [faulty computers on Airbus planes]
Time ^ | 2009-06-04 | Jeffrey T. Iverson

Posted on 06/04/2009 9:46:02 PM PDT by rabscuttle385

As the French team leading the investigation into the Air France Flight 447 crash works through the multitude of likely and less likely disaster scenarios — from the repercussions of stormy conditions to an act of terrorism — perhaps among the most difficult to assess will be possible flight computer malfunctions. Air France CEO Pierre-Henry Gourgeon noted on Monday that immediately preceding AF447's disappearance, automatic messages sent by the plane indicated "multiple technical failures." As details emerge regarding these messages, experts will struggle to understand whether they were the inevitable result of the plane's breaking up or indicators of the failures that led to the accident.

Gourgeon said the "succession of a dozen technical messages" sent by AF447 showed that "several electrical systems had broken down" immediately prior to the crash. A chronology of these messages acquired by the São Paolo daily Jornal da Tarde show that moments before the plane is believed to have plunged into the ocean, its autopilot became disengaged and the plane sustained damage to its stabilizing controls and flight systems, as well as a failure of the systems that were monitoring the aircraft's speed, altitude and direction: the ADIRU (Air Data Inertial Reference Units) and the ISIS (Integrated Standby Instruments System). These are key components in fly-by-wire systems, which use computers and wires instead of mechanics and hydraulics to control a plane's flight.

On Wednesday, TIME revisited an October 2008 incident in which a Qantas Airbus 330 — the same model as AF447 — unexpectedly went into a brief yet harrowing 20-second nosedive, causing multiple injuries and requiring an emergency landing. The investigation that followed blamed an ADIRU failure for the 330's uncommanded dive...It was later learned that the same plane had experienced a similar occurrence in September 2006, as had three other flights...

(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airbus; airfrance; failure; flight447; planecrash
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1 posted on 06/04/2009 9:46:03 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
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To: ShadowAce

ping!


2 posted on 06/04/2009 9:46:16 PM PDT by rabscuttle385 ("If this be treason, then make the most of it!" —Patrick Henry)
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To: rabscuttle385

Blown up


3 posted on 06/04/2009 9:50:12 PM PDT by CIDKauf (No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.)
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To: rabscuttle385

Who Knows?


4 posted on 06/04/2009 9:50:59 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld (The side that stays within its fortifications is beaten"-Napoleon Bonaparte)
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To: rabscuttle385

More speculation.

Seems there was a bomb threat late May. The 27th I believe. The characteristics of this fall in line with multiple scenarios, including a bomb going off.

As nobody apparently has made claim to responsibility for a bombing, it is another possibility isn’t it.


5 posted on 06/04/2009 9:51:16 PM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists...Call 'em What you Will, They ALL have Fairies Living In Their Trees.)
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To: rabscuttle385

No...


6 posted on 06/04/2009 9:51:42 PM PDT by babygene
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To: rabscuttle385
I think I know what really happened...

7 posted on 06/04/2009 9:53:02 PM PDT by MAD-AS-HELL (Hope and Change. Rhetoric embraced by the Insane - Obama, The Chump in Charge)
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To: rabscuttle385
moments before the plane is believed to have plunged into the ocean, its autopilot became disengaged and the plane sustained damage to its stabilizing controls and flight systems, as well as a failure of the systems that were monitoring the aircraft's speed, altitude and direction: the ADIRU (Air Data Inertial Reference Units) and the ISIS (Integrated Standby Instruments System)

These folks went through hell. Protect them Lord

8 posted on 06/04/2009 10:01:59 PM PDT by eyedigress
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To: rabscuttle385
...key components in fly-by-wire systems, which use computers and wires instead of mechanics and hydraulics to control a plane's flight.

The A330 has no hydraulic servos to power the control surfaces?

I guess they'd better tell Airbus to rewrite the flight manual!!!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/10016906/a330hydraulic

9 posted on 06/04/2009 10:11:18 PM PDT by zipper
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To: zipper

I believe the B-777 is the same way . They say it makes the frame weigh less which is more efficent. Personally when I fly overseas, it’s usuallu on a B-767-which has control cables right up to the yoke-gives me a warm feeling inside.


10 posted on 06/04/2009 10:21:42 PM PDT by ground_fog
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To: MAD-AS-HELL

damn that was a spooky episode.....I still can’t figure out why kirk didn’t just pull out his phaser(?) and zap the monster. (I think those things worked through windows, and if they didn’t they should have.....)


11 posted on 06/04/2009 10:43:48 PM PDT by bobby.223
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To: rabscuttle385

Ordnance with shaped directional charge (to blow out hole(s) through fuselage) triggered by an op amp with an accelerometer driving the inputs. Turbulence going through the ITCZ is as reliable as clock work. And that’s all she wrote.


12 posted on 06/04/2009 10:49:45 PM PDT by GOP_1900AD (Stomping on "PC," destroying the Left, and smoking out faux "conservatives" - Take Back The GOP!)
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To: rabscuttle385

I’m not sure of the cause of the crash, but I am a computer scientist. I remember when I was in school and we studied some cases where software glitches/bugs led to the deaths of people. As a horrific example, read: http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/Therac_25/Therac_1.html

It was extremely sobering for me to realize that software I write could be operating in a system where lives literally hung in the balance. As a professional now, I’ve decided to not be involved in such systems. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night hoping my software was good enough for such systems. We also discussed in school how it is best to avoid such systems. In terms of safety, it is better design to have physical, fail-safe redundancy to prevent loss of life in the case of software or computer hardware failure.


13 posted on 06/04/2009 11:00:18 PM PDT by mbs6
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To: rabscuttle385

Windows strikes again.


14 posted on 06/04/2009 11:00:38 PM PDT by Pelham (California, formerly part of the USA)
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To: rabscuttle385

I wonder if a new non-explosive bomb has been tested successfully so to speak, a new compact EMP bomb that will destroy an aircraft from the inside by rendering its systems inoperable.


15 posted on 06/04/2009 11:11:37 PM PDT by Eye of Unk ("If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." T. Paine)
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To: rabscuttle385

AF447 had completely different ADIRU’s than those in the QANTAS planes. Different units and and different software.

The faulty ADIRU’s were made by Litton.

AF447 used Honeywell ADIRU’s.


16 posted on 06/05/2009 12:29:05 AM PDT by ltc8k6
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To: Pelham

Vista Ultimate 32bit?


17 posted on 06/05/2009 2:15:48 AM PDT by IDFbunny
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To: rabscuttle385

18 posted on 06/05/2009 3:35:26 AM PDT by Paradox (When the left have no one to villainize, they'll turn on each other.)
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To: bobby.223

he didn’t pull his phaser because he was too busy trying to keep his toupee on.


19 posted on 06/05/2009 4:24:06 AM PDT by MAD-AS-HELL (Hope and Change. Rhetoric embraced by the Insane - Obama, The Chump in Charge)
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To: MAD-AS-HELL
I think I know what really happened...

Looks like he's puckering up for a kiss.

20 posted on 06/05/2009 6:08:21 AM PDT by Kitsunebi
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