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The Airbus “No Major Malfunction” Malfunction

Rumors are multiplying. Now there is an unconfirmed rumor that the captain was absent from the cockpit at the time of the event.

In NOT a Flight of Imagination , we did not go into depth about the false-rumor buzz initially created by the French publication “Le Figaro” which is owned by Dassault Group. (i.e. vested interest.) It has already been released that an Airbus rep who is in on the AF 447 black box decoding had obtained permission to send out a telex indicating:

…no immediate action is required as a result of preliminary data from the Air France Airbus A330 accident.

Of course this is what Airbus is going to say. For all we know, they had that statement ready before they even looked at the tapes. Airbus is laying the groundwork. Don’t forget that this is a criminal case in the French court. One does not need a crystal ball to see that this is going to be very expensive for Thales and Airbus and Air France. And of course, the size of compensation payouts for the victim’s families be determined by the extent of blame of the involved parties.

From this quote, a thousand rumors sprang, based on every possible interpretation of that one statement. Although the initial Airbus statement was approved by the BEA, the interpretations were disapproved of by the BEA who followed up saying that Sensationalist publication of non-validated information, whilst the analysis of the data from the flight recorders has only just started, is a violation of the respect due to the passengers and the crew members that died and disturbs the families of the victims, who have already suffered as a result of many hyped-up stories.

The telex does not rule out pitot tube icing, currently a suspected factor in the crash. But Airbus is positioning itself already to blame dead pilots who cannot defend themselves. They want to take the court of public opinion as far as possible away from potential design flaws, manufacturing shortcuts, etc. However, this is not a wise move if they really consider it. The entire bastion of Airbus Fly By Wire theory is that they make “pilot proof” planes.

So, how in the same breath, can they say their planes are pilot-proof and that they crashed due to pilot error? According to their own hype, If the plane itself is pilot-proof, then it can not crash due to pilot error. It HAD to crash due to “other than pilot” error.

As I understand it, no matter what happens on this fly-by-wire model, if there is a problem, the pilots are shut out of being able to fix it anyway.

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A Small Point about the NTSB and Investigations

We’d like to remind people that NTSB investigations take a year or more.

We post news as it comes. The media being what it is, we hope everyone that reads our posts realizes that tertiary sources gleaned through the media are speculative at best. This speculation, published or not, does not compare in merit to NTSB investigations that take a year or more, and are examined with a fine-toothed comb in order to determine causes and consequences.

While the inexperience of the Asiana Crash on this particular plane at this particular airport may be a contributory cause, there may also be underlying causes that were behind autopilot being switched off, or the speed decreasing enough to cause a stick-shaker alert.

See a Boeing 777 stick shaker test below:

The NTSB has an extensive description of the investigative processes here:

http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/process.html

Obviously, the brief summation of news teams and even witnesses can not compare to the depth and breadth of the official investigation.

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Airlinair Plane Makes Emergency Landing in France

AirlinairAirlinair flight A5-4328 had to return and make an emergency landing in Lyon, France, on May 27th.

The plane took off for Luxembourg, but had to return shortly afterwards after it experienced a cabin pressure issue.

The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.

The passengers were accommodated in other flights.

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Virgin America: Trapped in Plane

LAX to JFK
No, LAX to SWF to (bus) to JFK

Never heard of SWK? It’s Stewart International Airport, 90 miles N of New York. It’s the infamous airport where this Saturday 126 passengers on a Virgin America flight shared a nightmare for four to six hours on the tarmac, completed with rationed potato chips (4) rationed water (every 1/2 hour.)

On the bright side, the flight did not crash.

Diverted from NYC by weather, the 5 1/2 hour flight turned into a runway waiting room. Not all of the passengers were allowed off the plane into the airport; the flight attendants and airport personnel were getting testy. Then Jet Blue provided bus transportation to the stranded…er…trapped…er…Virgin America passengers for the 90 mile trip to JFK.

Passengers amused themselves by elaborating on their ordeal online. Much to the benefit of the travel-weary passengers, Virgin America’s CEO David Cush was one of the people who heard the online tale of woe, and is (we hear) refunding the cost of the trip plus $100 to the 126 passengers.

Cheaper than a lawsuit, I guess. I wonder if he’ll be getting them to sign anything.

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Right Air France Flight 447 Analysis—Wrong Angle

Everyone with an agenda will be defending their side regardless of any relationship to truth.

In “George Jonas: How a pilot turned Air France Flight 447 into a giant brick” I find the personification of the autopilot “George” very interesting-and especially the comment Jonas attributes to the autopilot- “This thing isn’t airworthy, mates. You fly it. I quit.”

I keep seeing discussions trying to blame the pilot for keeping the nose up attitude.

The author of the National Post article gives the pilots all possible credit (“Air France has superb pilots.”) Maybe there was something else going on if the pilot flew nose up. If it were daylight, maybe they’d have had some concept that they were flying at too low a speed. I learned from the Colgan Air accident about the nose down response to gain speed.

The Air France Flight 447 transcriptions indicate that the angle of attack continued to increase, and the trimmable horizontal stabiliser increased; angle of attack continued to increase, and the trimmable horizontal stabiliser increased from a 3° nose-up position to 13° nose-up – where it stayed for the rest of the flight.

According to an expert pilot’s analysis, no pilot would ever fly those angles of attack (pitch) if they were able to prevent them.

The reported angle of attacks are incompatible with commercial flights unless required in an extreme situation such as to avoid an imminent ground contact or collision (GPWS or TCAS). Even that would be just for a brief moment.

If the information is true and I bet my life on that, those pilots were prevented from taking the proper actions to reduce the airplane’s angle of attack (pitch). And that means only one thing: The airplane’s automatism either malfunctioned or was conceived not to allow the pilot’s intervention (Airbus philosophy).

Either possibility will put the blame onto the manufacturer.

*GPWS means GROUND PROXIMITY WARNING SYSTEMS also known as EGPWS (E for “ENHANCED”)
**TCAS means TRAFFIC COLLISION AND AVOIDANCE SYSTEM

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Ryanair Plane Overruns Runway at Hamburg Airport

Ryanair flight FR-128 overran the end of the runway after landing at Hamburg Airport, Germany, on May 15th.

The incident happened when the Boeing 737-800 plane was coming from Barcelona, Spain.

No injuries were reported.

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