Originally Posted by
henra
???
I believe I see ~ 2-3 inches of spindle above the Ball nut. The silver part above the hinge appears to have the same color and diameter as the lower part. With 1,7" per unit and 0,25 units = max ND, I end up with ~2,5 -3 units. Seems like pretty much spot on for that speed and configuration.
That observation does not rally point into the direction of spindle/jackscrew failure nor runaway trim.
On top of that in the footage shown it appears indeed as if there were some kind of recovery attempt going on.
The speed being somewhere around 240kts this becomes more and more strange.
So at the moment it looks like:
- Flight at correct trim (assumption based on position of Jackscrew)
- At 240kts at 6000ft. (assumption based on FR24 data). (Probably Some 60-70kts above stall speed).
- Flight in IMC (Statement early in the process)
- Coming out of the clouds at high speed (>>250kts)
- Flightpath angle in the part visible in the footage initially ~40 - 50°ND, apparently possibly reducing to ~30 - 40°ND.
- Initial altitude in the video difficult to judge but in a wild guess somewhere in the range 2000 - 3000ft.
What plausible scenarios does that leave?
=> Stall as initiating event rather unlikely (too much speed margin, flight attitude pretty stable and straight, albeit hefty ND with rather lowish AoA in the footage)
=> Out of Trim situation somewhat unlikely if the position of the jackscrew represents the state it was in during the terminal phase of the flight.
=> failed jackscrew/ball nut can't be completely ruled out but is not really support by the picture of the jackscrew nor the apparent started recovery => rather unlikely.
At the moment I'm somewhat at a loss what could have reasonably caused that loss of Control.
...Excluding "unlikely" scenarios such as Germanwings 9525, Egyptair 990, Silk Air 185, etc . . . ?