Originally Posted by
TheShadow
Does anyone know whether IR decoy flares
a. are fitted?
It is, again, common knowledge. Do a Google search (text or image)for "Nimrod BOZ" Or look at pictures of Nimrods on airliners.net (
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1095476/L/ or
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1010553/L/ for example). Not just fitted to slow them down, you know.....as well as the in-built AN/ALE-40 launcer.
b. would be fired en masse as an SOP prior to a forced landing?
Not being handsome, witty, charming, and well paid (ie Aircrew), couldn't say for sure. I'd like to bloody think so though.
Imagine that some pyros (such as a marker marine, retro etc) would be carried in case of a divert overwater SAR mission. Any history of these cooking off inside the pressurized fuselage and creating a disposal problem at height?
I've never seen pyrotechnics carried internally (such as a marker marine, retro etc), either on training, or in theatre. That's what the bomb bay is for. There is a flare gun in the cockpit, and a small number of coloured flares, but that's it. No big secret there either.
Are any IR decoy flares carried for reloading from internal stocks (i.e.reloading on the ground at a deployment/forward base?).
No. Decoy flares are treated as any other explosive, under the usual strict control at the FOB. Not carried internally, even in-theatre.
Apart from the pyros, the high-level problem followed by an emerg descent has all the hallmarks of a land ASAP electrical fire. Either scenario is supported by the indigenous person quoted as saying that there was a fire in the rear of the aircraft shortly before it impacted some few hundreds of yards from him.
Speculation. Could be any one of a number of causes. Fuel, conditioning, electrics, pressurisation, heating systems yadda yadda yadda. That's what the BOI will hopefully find out.