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Dissappering A330-200

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wideloadwhitford:

--- Quote from: Silverbird on June 02, 2009, 02:53:35 pm ---I'm gonna say over here also, I mentioned over and at the projectopensky forum, I don't like that fact that plane is being controlled by electric servo motors I  don't know if there are backup motors but if the plane suffers a total electric failure that's it your history its not like the old days were you pull that cable and the plane will move.

--- End quote ---

I think they have backup flight control system that's manual, that's what CNN was saying, but hey they know about as much aviation as newborns.

newmanix:
Thinking back to a time when airplanes used to be controlled by pulleys and hydraulic levers. Even my damn car is drive by wire...

God bless all souls onboard.

bradl:
I don't think this is a FBW issue, nor anything near an Airbus v. Boeing war. why? From the forums at FlightAware:


--- Quote ---Air France Jet May have Encountered 100 mph Updrafts

AccuWeather.com meteorologists have done extensive research into the weather that may have affected the Air France Airbus A330 Sunday evening. It is believed that the plane flew into thunderstorms, and the updrafts or turbulence associated with those storms in addition to lightning may have played a role.

The projected flight path of flight 447 took the aircraft near Sao Luis, Brazil, where it may have first encountered a thunderstorm. Later in the flight, the plane appears to have flown into or near a large cluster thunderstorms that were in the development stages northeast of Fernando De Noronha, which is located off Brazil's northern coast, and along the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the belt of low pressure that surrounds the Earth at the equator.

Based on weather information from Fernando De Noronha, the updrafts associated with the thunderstorms may have reached up to 100 mph. Such an updraft would lead to severe turbulence for any aircraft. In addition, the storms were towering up to 50,000 feet and would have been producing lightning. The Air France plane would have encountered these stormy conditions, which could have resulted in either some structural failure or electrical failure as noted in the communications between the Airplane and Air France headquarters.

Based on satellite information, the Air France flight had little chance of going around the storms given that they stretched for over 400 miles and were developing along the flight path. The airplane was flying at cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. With the updrafts pushing the storms up to 50,000 feet, the plane had to fly through the storms and not over them.

Despite the presence of the storms Sunday evening, the only lightning detected along the flight path was near Sao Luis, Brazil. Lightning strikes were not being detected with the storms northeast of Fernando De Noronha and along the ITCZ at the time.

According to Brazilian aviation officials, wreckage that has been found in the Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles off the northern coast of Brazil could be from the Air France aircraft. The debris sighted includes metallic objects and plane seats. This wreckage still hasn't been confirmed as being part of the Air France jet.

Tropical thunderstorms and the lightning patterns generated by them are different from storms that typically occur over the United States. Studies have shown that the top region of tropical thunderstorms is highly charged and more conducive to lightning, which indicates that an airplane flying near the top of a tropical thunderstorm could be more susceptible to a lightning strike. Tropical thunderstorms are also notorious for producing frequent cloud-to-cloud, as well as cloud-to-air lightning.

--- End quote ---

Crossing that with a map of the weather during the flight from the BBC, and you have a completely different story than something going wrong electrically in the A330. That strong of an up/downdraft could break apart any plane, Boeing/Airbus/otherwise. They couldn't fly over it (IIRC, the A330 has a ceiling of FL390) as the storms were at FL500, so they could only go through it, or turn back.

Keep in mind that similar happened with CAL611 (B742) on its last revenue generating flight. That crash was due to metal fatigue, but it did break apart in mid air, and we know that a B742 definitely isn't FBW.

BL.

newmanix:
Update: There are claims that the wreckage found is not that of the AF flight... Some parts just turned out to be "sea garbage".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090605/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_plane;_ylt=Avihkhz37kn2Ma0ZSILDHtGCfNdF

Cheers.

Silverbird:

--- Quote from: newmanix on June 05, 2009, 06:48:35 pm ---Update: There are claims that the wreckage found is not that of the AF flight... Some parts just turned out to be "sea garbage".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090605/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_plane;_ylt=Avihkhz37kn2Ma0ZSILDHtGCfNdF

Cheers.

--- End quote ---

Yea just read about cant believe it was just garbage I really hope they find out what happened over there. wideloadwhitford, your right I think they do have a back up to control the plane.

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