Originally Posted by
aixois
Hello,
It was on AVHERALD (article=4987fb09) :
On May 20th 2016 The Aviation Herald received information from three independent channels, that ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) messages with following content were received from the aircraft:
00:26Z 3044 ANTI ICE R WINDOW
00:26Z 561200 R SLIDING WINDOW SENSOR
00:26Z 2600 SMOKE LAVATORY SMOKE
00:27Z 2600 AVIONICS SMOKE
00:28Z 561100 R FIXED WINDOW SENSOR
00:29Z 2200 AUTO FLT FCU 2 FAULT
00:29Z 2700 F/CTL SEC 3 FAULT
no further ACARS messages were received.
Early May 21st 2016 the French BEA confirmed there were ACARS messages just prior to break down of communications warning however that they are insufficient to understand the causes of the accident until flight data or cockpit voice recorders have been found
Good evening to everyone.
When this happened, it had all the hall marks of a fire originating at the RH window power blocks. The assumption of it being caused by an iPad would only make sense if the fire was detected by the crew some considerable time before the RH window TAI ACARS message. The comments on O2 mask flow noise picked up on the CVR are again only interesting if they led by some time the ACARS fault msgs.
Absent that time data, there is nothing to indicate it was an iPad, or battery pack or O2 mask issue.
As to fighting a fire originating at the power contacts of the window, as long as there is power supplied the item is not going to stop burning once the extinguish ant is removed from the atmosphere.
A descent from cruise to impact in less than 8 minutes, with much of that eestablishing a descent is not likely to result in anything less than massive fragmentation on impact. If ballistic penetration, stippling or other evidence of an explosive device is absent, there is no need for there to have been an explosion.
The seat of the fire may not have been at the window itself, it would merely need to be related to the power supply associated with the RH window, less likelyhood of involvement of a control circuit but all things are possible inthe absence of all of the evidence which does exist but appears to not be released to the public.
Crew smoking is a low probability causation and would have had verbal commentary on a CVR recording.
I would look at power circuits for the window, and where they are not directly observed by the crew from the EE Bay etc.