There is speculation on what happened. There are reports a lightening strike could have caused a catastrophic failure to the electrics.

Would the lightening strike have to go via the plane to earth to cause this? But then wouldn't the Faraday cage principle apply?

 

It must have happened very fast as there was no mayday call. I'm thinking lightning. And yet it seems like the electric discharge would have been uniform over the surface of the plane. Could be it wasn't. Could be the plane flew into a pocket of differing potential such that the origin of the discharge was right at the point of the plane.

 

Hello,

In the news there was an automatic emergency call from the electroinics send.
There where possible more systems wrong and the plane could not be controllled anymore.

Greetings,
Bertus

 

On these planes one can call other people by phone using a credit card but sorry we don't know where the plane is. The technology is there.

All it takes to mount a quick rescue mission is a manual/automatic distress message with GPS coordinates.

It make perfect sense if plane GPS coordinates information are added to all distress messages regarding major problems of the plane.

 

Its the first time when am seeing a mystic system failoure(well first time means first time after opting the electronics as my major)...
1) "Mayday calls can be made on any frequency, and when a mayday call is made no other radio traffic is permitted except to assist in the emergency"......This was a line in wiki article about MAYDAY calls....Any frequency???So if am in GRAVE trouble then i may send radio message saying 'Mayday' three times at any frequency and help will be on its way and whatmore all other radio stations nearby will stop transmitting ie. going for radio silence till am rescued??Is this the way it works?
....I hav loads and loads of questions...Please continue the topic so that i could know more about how a sophisticated system can fail and also i could frame my questions properly...

 

Well this is what I heard:
The turbulence was so great that the plane kept picking up speed and loosing it.
The auto pilot can not handle this so engine stalls, and so on.

 

1) "Mayday calls can be made on any frequency, and when a mayday call is made no other radio traffic is permitted except to assist in the emergency"

A MAYDAY will usually be transmitted on a guard frequency which is monitored 24/7. The aircraft cannot transmit on "any frequency" as it's radios only have a selected band to use.

Well this is what I heard:
The turbulence was so great that the plane kept picking up speed and loosing it.
The auto pilot can not handle this so engine stalls, and so on.

In a situation like that the autopilot would disconnect leaving the crew to fly it manually. However, depending upon what autopilot settings were in use, the autothrottle should be able to handle speed swings as they do not happen instantly thus giving the actuators a chance. In the event they cannot cope they disconnect.

The autopilot disconnecting will not lead to the engines stalling. you'll need a fairly substantial airflow disruption to do that.


Had it been a total power failure the RAT (Rotary Air Turbine) would have deployed automatically giving the crew electrical power for crucial systems as well as limited hydraulic power. The RAT is basically a generator with a propeller on it (though other designs are around) that gets deployed into the air stream.

We may never know what happened as the accident recorder (aircrew don't like them being called crash recorders) and FDR may be lying in 2 miles of water in rocky terrain and the sonar beacon will only run for 30 days.

 

According to Woods Hole Oceanograpic Instition a mission was planned for that area may,31,09 where the plane crashed ,with Jason and Nereus underwater robotic craft. All the vessels used by Wood Hole Is owned by the U.S. Goverment.They may be redirected to look for black boxs.Go to wikipedia for more Info.

 

Lastest news, debris were found and chances that the black box is recovered from the Atlantic is very minimal, apparently being miles underwater.

 

On the news this morning - Airbus put out the word that the installed pitot tubes were not reliable. Air France has been very slow to change them out, but saya they will speed up the modification now.

Faulty sensor data could have made the autopilot miscontrol the aircraft. Good reason to avoid Air France.

 

I heard rumblings it was a bomb... the airport recieved a bomb threat just prior to the plane disappearing so its a possibilty. That along with a sudden disappearence of the plane makes perfect sense although youd think if it was a bomb someone would have taken credit for such a horrible thing.

 

U know what I think....it's an act of god. Something very wrong was going on in the plan...it's a warning...mark my words

Rifaa

 

No comments.....

 

An Airbus plane crashed in Sep 01 due to composite failure after rapid movement of control surfaces. I understand this plane uses large amounts of composite.

 

Photos in the news shows the diver recovered tail fin section of the plane but it is not attached to the plane tail.

If it is, the data recorder would have been located by now.

Therefore it must have been sheared off in mid air. Not the first time for Airbus.

 

Today, I heard on the radio that bodies from the plane are scattered for 50 miles and this makes the authorities think the plane broke up in the air. This would explain the lack of a mayday call.

 

well lets suppose we draw a diagram (well in this case a line with the drawing of a plane on it)of them plane falling down and lets pretend we are around 10 miles away to the side of a wing on the plane.(not a total major in physics)Then lets imagine that that parts of the plane were shown like an x-ray. There are 150,000 possibilities that the plane could have had something damaged or someone apperently told a total lie about how the plane went down. Unfortunately some of my friends believe that the major reason the plane fell down,is because there was someone in that plane that the French Governments did not want anyone to know about and that someone did not know that the governments was right behind him. The only way that the government could've won is by finding some of its own "surveyed to be alone for life" people and use the workers at the airport to guide the"so called people" so that the plane would circle around at a certain point east of France towards the Gobi Dessert at first but then towards another airport. Quickly, the governments would encounter with each other with their millitary bases and keep the plan confidential. Otherwise the "surveyed to be alone" people would manage to find out how to fully operate the plane after 13 hours of instructions, the crash was simply the master way probably so that the Governments of France could get away with their plan to take out an economic hitman from interfering with the petrolium that the United States own. In other words they didn't want a ground zero to happen to them from us.

 

Wow, paranoia - it strikes deep. That is like saying the World Trade Towers were deliberately blown up (after the arranged plane crashes, of course) so some people the government did not like would be "taken care of".

Doesn't the simpler alternative suggest that Airbus may still have some sensor/computer program/airframe problems. Recall that the first one crashed due to software and the pilot not following directions. Composite wings and storms may not play well together.

 

Yes, I'm sticking to poor pilot decision to fly into such bad weather conditions until other facts arrive to change that opinion. Seems like a another plane ahead of them decided to change course and fly around that same weather conditions.

Lefty

 

I believe the Airbuses were the first jetliners to make major use of composite materials in their construction (e.g. carbon fiber and fiber glass instead of traditional aluminum). These "space age" materials offer superior strength-to-weight ratios, and enhanced resistance to corrosion. Unfortunately, when exposed to high stress or impact, composites tend to shatter rather than bending or crumpling.

Also, a quick Google inquiry will reveal that the Airbus has a history of composite material breakage resulting in the loss of the rudder, or worse, the entire rudder and vertical stabilizer. The most infamous case of the latter was AA Flight 587 that crashed in New York City. The cause as determined by the NTSB? Excessive rudder movement by the pilot!! To me this suggests defective design, or an as-yet unrecognized failure mechanism in composite materials.