Data Acquisition

Too much automation and bad decision making sometimes overshadow each other. we really don't know and possibly will never know what exactly happened in flight 447, however there's one question that remains unanswered: why did an experienced airline transport pilot entered a totaly red radar zone? did his radar failed as did his speed sensing probes? Icing of the Pitot system? nonesense, at that altitude teperature is at least -55C all is long frozen, and what has happend to his Pitot heater? But suppose that they did fail , and his radar screen went blank, and he was unable to see the weather ahead, the turbulance did shake him strong enough to clearly indicate of the existing hazard and he knew damn well that a 180 turn is due. If his speed sensing instruments failed, did his stick shaker failed as well? Total failure of several systems such as this, which is very unlikely, would certainly cause him to declare an emergency, but he didn't. Why? Was he unable to detect the writing on the wall with all these symptoms? and if he didn't, where was the first officer? was he blind to the approaching danger as well? I just don't buy all this.

looks like you are not the only one not to buy the story.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/06/what-happened-to-air-france-flight-447/

Not sure of the authors credentials, afterall he is "available for hire as a presidential speech writer at steep rates". I don't actually know what a presidential speech writer is.

Surly to God total instrument failure with all the backups that are installed nowadays is highly unlikely,also are there not a set of analog mechanical instruments to cross reference to as a final requirement in the unlikely event of a total failure?

High level maintenance is expensive especially with more complex electronics, cost cutting in this world of economic difficulties could compromise safety, there has been a flurry of incidents in the last 12 months. I am surprised that a different system of black box ejection before impact with a beacon recovery has not been devised by now how difficult could it be to do this?

just go through the write up on the crash of AF447

http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/ would give a different perspective of the crash in the absence of CVR and FDR evidence!

crm

Great information!!!

In the pic named: "projected flightpath blended with infrared satellite analysis"

it is clearly stated that AF447 had nearly traversed the thunderstorm.

If there have been lightnings - not at all certain because of high humidity causing low if any lightning activity - if there have been any lightnings then these have been likely from the forefront of the clouds where the "positive" lightnings originate.

These are extremely powerful. So please: how is tested the lightning survivability of airplanes? How much current?

Only a super-lightning is capable of momentarily killing all available electrical power sources.

Else there would have been a mayday signal.

Next: the fragments that were found clearly indicate that the plane was intact to near surface. There was a photo of a section of the plane floating in calm water where food containers for passengers meals or similar were still in place - only the access doors with related panels missing.

This will be possible only if the plane was mechanically intact to near sea-level and broke at contact with the sea.

Does anybody know about water-touchdown at heavy waves?

RHABE

Knowing the number of professional pilots that I have over the years, I can only surmise that the onset of problems was so fast and of so great a magnitude that all of their attention and energies were focused on trying to regain control / save the aircraft.

We have seen before where the redundancies built into systems fail, or where incorrect appraisals of the situation exacerbate the problems at hand or create new ones. When it's right there, right now, and decisions have to be made and acted on instantly, mistakes can be made that wouldn't be if the time were available to gather more information and analyze it. Apparently, the time wasn't there.

There should always be the provision for manual override of automated systems. Our ability to think, to appraise, to go beyond given formats and parameters is what has kept us moving forward. If the system is flashing "TILT" (I'm dating myself), then I'd like to take a shot at it myself; I've nothing to lose. I'll take a slim chance over no chance any day.

Jerry It looks as if we both fly the same airplane. Is this a Great-Lakes 2T-1A-2? If so, I own S/N 0826...(ex N4012L) We don't have may computer problems here... However, I still insist:What for heaven sake were they doing there? Why did they enter into a zone that most probably looked as an overly riped tomato on thier radar screen?? Wangito.

Hi,

the condition of found airplane parts states clearly that the plane was intact near sea-level and the crash was at low velocity (at hitting the waves).

As it may certainly take several minutes from cruising altitude down to sea-level, I am convinced that a very big lightning killed all the electronics onboard, including the backup power-supplies. Only turbines and hydraulics surviving.

With this situation there is no emergency transmitted - if tried.

The ocean was very rough at that time - an ultra-big thunderstorm of 17 km (50,000ft) cloud height is not a baby thunderstorm. So very likely at touch down on the rough water the plane broke to pieces and no time to inflate any rescuing devices.

RHABE

Whatwe know is that all the operations in a fly-by-computerized-wire system are programmed. We know that as a fact. Also, we know that those people believe themselves to be much smarter than pilots. So it is entirely likely that the redundant computer system came upon a condition that it did not recognize, and made a wrong choice. It happens to me with my computerized car, on an almost a weekly basis, and although it does not cause a crash, it is inconvenient. And we know for certain that if it was an incorrect action on the part of the control software, that the truth will be totally hidden to protect the guilty.

If it was lightning, it would only take one unexpected and uncompensated for lightning hit to paralyze a computer system, and at that point it was already "all over", minutes before the plane hit the water. Consider the possibility that a lightning strike put the engines in the "full braking" mode, the one used after landing. And most likely there would not be a means to over-ride it.

So the important thin g to learn from this tragedy is that one should never trust the programmers, not at any time, not under any condition.