Nepal Plane Crash

[fdr]

Originally Posted by barrymung

I completely realise there have been no recorded incidents of mobile phones bringing down an aircraft, but:



Could a mobile phone have caused an erroneous reading from the AoA sensor?
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft

Contrary to one AAIB report a short while ago, a number of aircraft built before 2000 can have anomalies from the use of cell phones, particularly when they were analogue types. I had fire warnings on both engines, AP, ATR drop off because a pax in 2E in J class was trying to phone home with a Motorola Mitac, many years ago. We actually got it turned off, then back on and then off and the symptoms followed the cabin crews selection of the phone mode. Was interested when the AIB years later stated they have never had a case of interference...

In this case, No.

The ATR will use sensed AOA from a AOA vane to determine stall warning and stick shaker activation, but had the warning been suppressed, it still needs an approach to a stall to have occurred, so it would not be the initiating event. On the stick pusher, the system would have been inhibited at the time, which is a curious bit of interpretation of the rules if true. AOA would not have been causal.