Originally Posted by
dalgetty
My attempt at an air crash investigation:
Without an IFR rating, his only option was to go for it with Night VFR, flying much lower than the safer flight levels many have already suggested.
When things got really tricky - poor visibility, iced-up controls responding heavily, instruments behaving strangely - he preferred to go down looking for warmer air than up into IMC. Not only was he not trained for IMC, but ATC would be aware that he was entering IMC and intervene.
Communicate/Conserve/Comply was not an option, because ATC would no doubt divert him to a nearby airfield. Sala would miss his first training session and bring the world's press, the CAA and his controllers down on him like a ton of bricks. Under pressure, he decided to press on at 2300ft - fly low, get home. But there was cloud all the way down.
I am not IFR rated and have been caught in IMC twice. It is disorientating, and it tends to make you rely heavily on the few instruments that you have at your disposal.
In this case it is possible that icing blocked the static port, with disastrous consequences, affecting the altimeter and the VSI. This from Wikipedia:
"One of the most common causes of a blocked static port is airframe icing. A blocked static port will cause the altimeter to freeze at a constant value, the altitude at which the static port became blocked. The vertical speed indicator will read zero and will not change at all, even if vertical speed increases or decreases."
When descending from 5000 feet to 2300 feet, with poor visibility, the above phenomena could result in a quick descent to sea level, with the pilot thinking he's still on level flight.
The only way to prove this would be if they find the wreck with flaps up and the altimeter reading 5000ft. Otherwise it's just speculation.
In your prognosis you are not taking into account that The deeper you go under the sea, the greater the
pressure of the
water pushing down on you. For every 33 feet (10.06 meters) you go down, the
pressure increases by 14.5 psi (14.5 psi = 999.73980751 millibar) so the reading on the altimeter will tell you absolutely nothing of any relevance because the altimeter will be FUBAR.