PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Ethiopian Prelim Report
View Single Post
Old 5th Apr 2019, 10:49
  #7 (permalink)  
GordonR_Cape
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Cape Town, ZA
Age: 62
Posts: 424
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
galdian

It appears things were "contained" until the last 30 seconds when it all fell apart, attitude of -40 degrees was reached and recovery impossible.
My thoughts are that things were 'contained' only in the sense that if you fall out of a 100 story building, nothing bad happens until you reach the ground.

Once the speed passed 250kts, that was a road from which it was very difficult to return. Reducing thrust would have produced a nose down pitch, at an altitude when that was least desirable.

It is not clear the exact stage at which that point-of-no-return was reached, but IMO no pilot on earth could have landed that plane safely, from the conditions it was at 30 seconds prior to them re-engaging the trim cutoff switches.

Edit: Perhaps some weird combination of elevator roll, speed brakes, or something else may have helped. Someone with a lot of free time on a simulator, might be able answer that question.
GordonR_Cape is offline