Originally Posted by
rog747
Re the Ethiopian accident - It has been inferred (both officially and unofficially?) that a bird strike immediately after take off likely tore off the AoA vane which in turn then started the chain of events where MCAS extreme ND inputs lead to the crash a few minutes later.
In these days of fantastic Forensics that we now have, I am puzzled that any evidence of the vane and/or the bird were not found along the aircraft track...
Surely as these tragic and deadly events have now caused such a huge impact on civil aviation that no Forensic sweep(s) seem to have been undertaken at no expense...
Just my tuppence, but if a bird strike was suspected soon after the crash why was this not an imperative, nor a return to the scene to sweep again?
If the AoA divergence was caused by the vane departing the aircraft, then they wouldn't have to look very far because that would have happened within about 6 seconds (~1,500') of WOW.
It has been reported that the Ethiopian AIB had three full-time employees (at the time of the crash) and that they were relying on airline personnel to help with the investigation. Perhaps the airline didn't provide enough help to sweep the runway and the area off the end of the runway. Perhaps it wasn't in the airline's interest to find the part (if it wasn't a bird strike then another possible explanation is faulty maintenance).