samedi 28 mai 2011

Airbus crash

I have read carefully the report of the Black Box info, something which some news services seem not to have done. It`s nonsense to suggest that as the senior pilot was on rest period the aircraft was left to someone inexperienced to fly!
  The scenario is as follows. The plane turned slightly to avoid a storm but still entered an area of turbulence with presumably icing conditions.  This led to the pitot tubes freezing which deprived the computer of reliable airspeed information. The computer therefore gave control back to the pilots.  So far so good.
  The second pilot raised the nose and increased engine speed thus gaining height,  not a bad thing when in trouble in a plane. But he then appears to have cut power, presumably confused by the lack of airspeed info  As he kept the nose up the plane slowed and stalled losing height rapidly with the nose still up. It was at 38000 feet and fell without any significant recovery for three and a half minutes till it hit the sea.
Now I am not a pilot but I can read. The correct action in case of stall is to drop the nose to gain speed possibly increasing engine thrust too. This was not done. Remember, they had three and a half minutes and 38000 feet, plenty of time and height to do something constructive.
  Two alternatives only appear likely. (No 1) It is not possible to recover an Airbus from a stall. Or( No 2 ) the pilots were not competent to do so Either alternative is worrying and I am glad Kim is coming home by boat.
  It occurs to me that the increasing reliance on computer info to fly planes may have led to the pilots being unable to fly `by the seat of their pants` I really can`t see how the loss of speed indication made the plane unflyable.  The sensation of descent in a stall is unmistakable and should have led to an instinctive recovery response by an experienced pilot as a skid leads to an instinctive response by an experienced driver. Perhaps the answer lies in the `experience` of the pilots. Thousands of hour spent monitoring a computer controlled flight is different to having experienced several real life stalls Perhaps there is a case for a period of stunt flying in a light plane as well as the traditional Link simulator.  Whatever I hope the report finds the real answer and not just a whitewash to clear the Company or the Insurers!

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