Posted on 03/24/2015 9:51:17 AM PDT by Red Badger
FULL TITLE: Search aircraft find the remains of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 scattered all over an alpine mountainside: Riddle over why pilots didn't send SOS despite taking eight minutes to fall 32,000 feet
The final moments of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 were shrouded in mystery today after air traffic controllers claimed they received no SOS despite the jet nosediving 32,000ft in just eight minutes.
All 144 passengers and six crew were today presumed dead after the Airbus A320 crashed in a remote region of the French Alps en route from Spain to Germany.
Two babies were among 45 Spanish on board and 16 children from the same school on an exchange trip were among some 100 Germans also feared to have died.
Images from the first rescue helicopters to reach the crash site showed wreckage scattered across hundreds of metres of mountainside, with some debris the size of a car.
Earlier reports quoted aviation sources in France as saying the pilots issued a Mayday distress signal and requested an emergency descent minutes before it hit the ground.
However, civil aviation authorities later denied that air traffic controllers received any such call.
'The aircraft did not itself make a distress call, but it was the combination of the loss of radio contact and the aircraft's descent which led the controller to implement the distress phase,' a spokesman for the French civil aviation authority said.
Germanwings chief executive Thomas Winkelmann said the aircraft began descending at 10.45am, a minute after reaching cruising height of 38,000ft.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
About 15 years ago, there was an incident...an Indonesian airline..the pilot was suffering huge financial problems..He locked the co-pilot out of the cabin...then dove the 737 straight down..it augured into a river. The debris field initially suggested the plane broke up at altitude..then crashed..once they figured out it went supersonic in the descent..that's why the tail broke off before impact
Lest I forget, I want to thank you now for your contributions to this thread!
Not likely. The chart at the link below shows the value at the altitudes shown varies between 574 and 650 kts. The plane slowed down slightly from its maximum speed (~500 kts), which was well below those values.
I was going to chime in and mention that. But since you did, as an Airbus pilot perhaps you may be able to comment on something else that seems odd about this Germanwings incident - there is something about the debris field of this crash that seems unusual - either not big enough, or too large. Couldn't really identify a source of impact either, or any significant charring/scorching. Could you comment on that?
And if you manually (per a flow like that posted earlier) dial in a lower altitude and then pass out... the plane simply goes down to that altitude and then levels off. It does not auger in. Eventually you wake up and resume flying the plane.
Thanks..I was looking at the chart in #44...am I wrong? (as one who knows next to nothing about planes/flying..
“This aircraft had an inspection yesterday...”
Somebody forgot to tighten a screw.
“For want of a nail...”
Some pictures appear to show scorching. It is hard to tell. If there is scorching, the impact site is the debris field, or very near by. If the aircraft disintegrated at altitude, the fuel would have vaporized.
In the US Airways 427 crash 21 years ago, the aircraft rolled over and impacted nearly vertically (80 degrees!) from about 6,000 feet. The impact speed was over 300 knots. The debris field was in hilly terrain, and was confined to just several hundred feet in a single ravine. There was smoke, but if I remember correctly there was not much, if any, scorching. I was a B737 pilot at the time and I knew the first officer, so I took particular interest.
The chart at #44 shows speed and altitude with the red line speed and the blue line altitude. If the two are confused (such as might happen if viewed in black and white), it could be be interpreted to show that speed was greater than Mach 1.
Is it possible to just “screw up”
and dial in an altitude based on sea level
and failing to account for ground terrain?
Um, no, there were no actual engines recovered th the Pentagon site. That is fiction.
Maybe a test run, so they wouldn’t want connections made too soon.
I wonder what a thorough inspection of the passenger manifest would turn up? Any bankers aboard? Any high-tech, weapons related individuals aboard? Any aides to Merkel or the French President aboard? Any aides to Putin aboard?
Not likely. These are not newbies. Experienced pilots make mistakes, but not that kind of mistake. It is the number one control used in flight - the altitude knob on the FCU. Setting it is something Airbus pilots can do in their sleep, upside down.
A bomb, missile, center fuel tank............
I’m never calm while flying. Only a mild panic until touchdown safely.............
Ramzi Yousef bombed Philippine Airlines Flight 434 as a test. He never called and claimed responsibility for his actions. Luck was with the airliner. It has a different seating arrangement from similar planes. If it had been the standard layout it would most certainly hit the center fuel tank rather than a cargo hold. One passenger died vs the loss of what certainly would have been the entire passenger and crew.
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