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 ...
ping!
Blown up
Who Knows?
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.
No...
These folks went through hell. Protect them Lord
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
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.
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.....)
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.
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.
Windows strikes again.
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.
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.
Vista Ultimate 32bit?
he didn’t pull his phaser because he was too busy trying to keep his toupee on.
Looks like he's puckering up for a kiss.
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