We
feel that the media coverage to date has not adequately
covered the details surrounding this crash and we are
simply asking some questions which we think should be
answered.
When a large airliner goes down
there are normally several factors which
cumulatively are able to defeat the checks and
balances built into aircraft systems and pilot
procedures. Only then does a disaster occur.
The loss of an aircraft can
represent a very significant financial loss which
can, in the worst case, cause the aircraft type to
be withdrawn from service or the company to go
bankrupt.
Fault for an accident usually is
assigned to one of four factors; the aircraft
maker, the airline or the pilot or the weather
conditions.
At this point in story
(June 7th/09) here are questions which have not yet been
answered in this story:
1. Airbus sent out instructions to
airlines to change out some parts (pitot tubes) regarding speed
measurement on the A330. Why was this not done? Also
is this accident related to the injuries caused on Qantas
Flight 72 in 2008 when there was a sudden change in
altitude of that A330? The cause of that incident has
still not been identified. Why is the media not reporting
this? And why is a two engine airline flying over water?
Doesn't it make sense to have four engines? If you loose
one engine on a four engine plane you loose 25% of your
power -one engine on a two engine plane and you loose 50%
of your power. Or to put it another way loose 2 engines on
a 2 engine plane and it falls to earth, loose 2 engines on
a four engine plane and it flies back home. Since there is no place to land at sea
wouldn't it make more sense to have four engines than two?
2. Airbus sent out instructions
warning pilots regarding speed based procedures
when there were errors in the system. This was
sent after the crash. Why?
4. Air France received a bomb
threat. Is this connected?
5. The two
bodies recovered to date were located
approximately 70 km south of the last known
position of the aircraft. Why South??? Wasn't the
aircraft traveling north east? Had it turned
around? Update 3 more bodies recovered and
more sighted in the water. The condition of the
three bodies made it impossible to determine the sex. Why did it take
six days to find them? Hopefully the bodies will shed some
light on the cause besides giving some comfort to
the families. Did the plane ditch or did it break
up at a high altitude? Where the bodies
wearing life jackets? Six days in the open ocean would
attract sea life and salt water would speed the decomposition
of the bodies. Recovery is a particularly gruesome task
that will leave those responsible with nightmares for the
rest of their lives. Was the condition of the latest
bodies as a result of the sea or the crash?
Update
19:20 EST June 7/09 a total of 17 bodies recovered we will
not continue to update the total as this is an ongoing
process.
6. Why only
two bodies? Does this mean the A330 broke up at
altitude or ditched? If it had broken up at
altitude wouldn't there be more floating parts?
Update the 3 more bodies (then 17) recovered and the others
just sighted should answer some of these
questions. One analyst suggested that finding the
bodies suggests the plane did NOT break up at altitude.
Another suggests the pilot had attempted to return to
land. Nobody really knows what happened six days after the
event. Why does the media call on so called experts and
attempt to get conclusions from them with very few facts
available?
7. Is Air
France or Air Bus attempting to pin any blame on
the pilots? There are billions of dollars at risk
here if this aircraft is found to be defective as
there are over 330 of them flying today. If it was
pilot error it would be the least damaging scenario
to these two companies.
8. The 24
error messages occurred over a four minute period.
This is a lot of time to react yet there were no
mayday messages from the pilots. Why. What were
they doing during this time? Or what had happened
to them that would cause them to do nothing? Was
it a bomb? A lightening strike to the
cockpit?
9. Air France
and Air Bus are saying that it might not be
possible to find the black boxes. Do they really
want to find them and then potentially discover
there is a fault with with the aircraft that will
result in billions of dollars of losses to
themselves? Both organizations need to act to
protect their brands. Time will tell.
10. At the
time of any airline crash the industry trots out
stats showing how safe air travel is and what a
wonderful safety record the airline had and how
safe the aircraft model is. They do this because
the traveling public gets scared and doesn't want
to travel anymore and this costs money in the form
of unfilled seats. Again we are seeing this
behaviour in this crash.
Anyone who
has ever traveled by air will realize how horrible
this must have been for passengers and how sad it
is for family and friends. Although the crash
itself represents a small percentage of violent
deaths- for example we loose over 2000 people
every year in traffic accidents in Canada -the suddenness
and the mystery associated with this crash has
caught everyone's attention.
The stories of
individual passengers show us how frail our lives
are -the happy group of ten who won this trip in a
contest- the school boy- the doctor- the other
innocents who never thought this would happen to
them on a gleaming Air France plane headed for Paris
with a superb crew and the best our commercial air
lines had to offer.
The following links
are very interesting especially the last one which will
really get you thinking about the safety of airbus
construction vs Boeing and the investigation itself.
June
27th 09 Update As suspected and as
previously reported it now looks like they will not find
the black boxes and the reason for the crash will remain
as one commentator said "a mystery". Our point
is that "a mystery" or "pilot error"
is the best possible financial outcome for Air Bus, Air
France and France. The worst possible outcome would have
been that the airbus construction was faulty or flawed.
June
30 2009 The worst possible event for Airbus
has just occurred with the loss of a Yemenia flt
626 Airways Airbus 310-300 with over 153 passengers and crew
onboard. This is the second airbus crash in less than a
month and although conditions surrounding each crash are
different it will in the minds of air travellers raise
doubts about the safety of the airbus fleet. In addition
US investigators are looking into two airbus A330
incidents related to speed measurement failures. In our
opinion serious and significant damage to the airbus
brand has occurred and any further incidents at this
time would be catastrophic to the company.
Update July
3,2009 The information that is coming out about flt
447 is very worrisome. (articles quoted from the Times
of London based on the French Accident first report- my
comments added)
1. the plane did
not break up at altitude and landed at great speed on
it's belly-An aircraft falling belly first is likely
to be in a stall or recovering from one. An aircraft
falling belly first is likely to be in a stall or
recovering from one. Aircraft diving fully out of
control from high altitude usually break up before
reaching the ground.
2. the plane
fell from 35,000 feet to the Ocean in four minutes. (this
is 8750 feet per minute or 146 feet per second or IF the
aircraft had hit the ocean at that speed it would have
been approximately 100 mph.)
3. none of the
passengers recovered were wearing life jackets so
had not prepared for an emergency landing
4.The
Brazilian authorities so far have refused the
investigators access to post-mortem examination results from
the 51 bodies recovered from the ocean.
5.The investigators
confirmed that the disaster began with faulty
readings from the pitot speed sensors. This caused
electronic systems to disconnect and left the crew with
the task of hand-flying a handicapped airliner.
6.The pitot speed sensors fed
faulty readings to data computers. This in turn caused
the automatic pilot and automated flight system to
shut down, leaving the pilots to hand-fly the
aircraft.
7.“This does not mean that the
aircraft was not flyable,” said Mr Bouillard. “It
means that it reverted to classical piloting.” Pilots
expert in the A330 and A340 long-range Airbus family
dispute the assumption that the aircraft was flyable.
Piloting an airliner by hand at cruising altitude in
turbulence at night without air speed data is extremely
difficult, Cedric Maniez, an Air France A330 captain
told The Times. The airline had simulated the
conditions last week and experienced crew struggled
to keep control.
8.The accident bureau said that
the faulty pitot tubes were not the cause of the crash.
“We can say that the pitot is strongly suspected of
causing the incoherent speed readings. It is one of the
factors but not the only one,” said Mr Bouillard. This
was also the consensus in the flying world, where
suspicion has fallen on the computerised systems of the
Airbus. The long-range
airliners have suffered at least three dozen similar
failures involving faulty speed readings, it has emerged
over the past month.
9. Lawyers for families of
victims have said that there could be a flaw that
would require all A330 Airbuses to be grounded. The
bureau rejected this.
James Healy-Pratt, whose London
firm, Stewarts Law, is representing two dozen families,
said: “In our view the evidence still points to three
factors — bad weather, questionable pitot tubes, and
questionable functioning of the ADIRU [air data]
computers.” Air France and Airbus are likely to
face claims totalling about $500 million (£300
million) over the disaster.
Update
July 31 2009 As suspected the black boxes
were not found. A recent news report indicates all pitot
tubes on A330 A340 air buses should be replaced based on
performance problems. The media has been very quiet
about flt447 and it appears that the strategies
undertaken to protect the brands have been successful as
this disaster fades into memory.
Update
December 13 2009 Another incident
involving a similar Air France A320 in the same area occurred
on Nov 29th as it encountered severe turbulence with 215
people aboard. The search for the black boxes has been
reactivated. Also large pieces of the aircraft have
still not been found. Still no cause has been
given for the crash.
