How long does it take to fall from 35 000 feet for an airliner? Well, it all depends on how that airliner falls down. If it goes nose down immidiately, it could take around 50-60 seconds. From what investigators and Airbus has learned from flight 447 the plane sent out messages for four minutes before it all went quiet.
Experts are now speculating in that the precious probes on the side of the aircrafts which measures speed could have gotten iced up very quickly, making parts of the autopilot to shut itself down because it could not read the speed of the aircraft. This would make the control of the aircraft during the turbulence at night very difficult, and could have been a factor in the fatal crash. Not being able to know what speed you are flying at, you could very easily fly too fast for the structure to handle during that rough turbulence or too slow, making the aircraft stall. If they encountered a stall at night during that turbulence, not being able to read their speed, it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to establish level and controlled flight again.
My thoughts are that the pilots during these difficult speed and ice issues, lost control and crashed in the sea. The pilots probably did all they could to get them out of the situation, but the aircraft stalled then over-speed and stall again due to icing on the pitot static system. They probably did this the last four minutes of their flight, while ACARS constantly transmitted messages about the general condition of the aircraft, which was broken apart eventually due to over-stressing of the air frame.
Those are my thoughts after having read a few articles and followed different forums on the internet about the flight 447 which went down. I have seen the media are quite sceptic about recovering those black boxes, but I sincerely believe they will discover them any day now. Remember, they have now found wreckages and bodies of those souls in the water. The black boxes also sends out a signal (lasts 30 days) which makes finding it a tiny bit easier.
1 Comment
June 12, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Today’s aircraft have reduced/limited capability for the pilot to control the aircraft; in these conditions, one becomes ‘colateral damage’;
My professional career lasted 43 years safely. I do not like flying today.