[Jennifer in Florida]

They are saying the voice recorder has the pilots stating there was an "air frame rattle." Somebody clue me in to what this is.

[oc-flyfish]

Nothing on Drudge yet...

[is_is]

Airframe rattle....very simnlar to having a out of balance wheel and driving with your door ajar.....makes a rattling vibration throughout the car....

[chit*chat]

They are saying the voice recorder has the pilots stating there was an "air frame rattle." Somebody clue me in to what this is.

The aircraft structure is called an 'airframe' while the motor, transmission, etc is called the 'power plant'. So the pilots are referring to a vibration or unusual noise that eminated from the sheetmetal part of the aircraft. I suppose a stabilizer tearing away from the main body of the aircraft would make quite an unusual noise.

Fly BOEING - we build solid aircraft. Cheaper isn't better.

[NixNatAVanG InDaBurgh]

> "air frame rattle."

At first they said the plane had hit some wake turbulence. The airframe rattle would occur if that happened. It would be akin to the shuddering of water and other pipes during an earthquake.
In this case, though, it seems it was not turbulence they hit, but that they WERE hit by something that caused the plane to shudder and then completely lose its tail...cleanly.
If this was an accident, the sun will not rise tomorrow.

[crystalk]

It is when you hear your tail come loose and fall off, after using Muhammad's discount repair service one too many times.

[zog]

--once again, I had to turn and yell at my resident aircraft 'expert" here, the retired stewardess. She sez that's usually what happens if the plane gets caught in massive turbulence from another aircraft's passage. It's rattles like crazy, gets all shook up. Could be also any number of other mechanical defects, this things breaks, causes this other thing to break, which leads to yet 15 more things breaking, and etc. In a car, you pull over to the side of the road, in a plane, you pull over to the pearly gates.