Just with respect to the official agenda which our Brazilian colleagues complained of earlier. I must suspend the usual general derision with which I treat some of the media (and for which some have criticised me in the past). While in this neck of the woods: BBC, RTE, and C4 news have continued to pedal the ‘official’ version, the ‘video screen speed measurements’ and (to varying degrees) suggestions that the pilots were landing with excessive speed/nothing wrong with the runway.
ITV news seems to have done some journalistic work and come up trumps. The main thrust of their story this evening was the suggestion that officials produced video clips in such a way as to suggest the pilots were in error, and that they(officialdom) were trying to deflect attention from the whole runway issue. They mentioned a couple of skids in previous days also, and that the runway condition had been a concern before the accident. ITV even had a simple (if very brief) description of touchdown zone and how a pilot can go around – without speculating that this had been attempted in this case. The story ended with what is obvious to us – either way – the truth will come out with the FDR data. So for me at least – full marks for ITV tonight.
Maybe ease up on criticism of me in the future guys if I’m on a rant about the media – I’ll definitely give credit where it’s due.
Dogma -
It would appear that once you start to hydro/aquaplane, you are not likely to stop, hence the reason why one aircraft could appear to stop normally and another slide of the end??
Whether it was at play here or not, time will tell – but when it does happen, it’s likely to continue and considerably effect the distance required. For example, Qantas B744 at Bangkok – even after full manual braking applied, the crew noticed no appreciable deceleration – aquaplaning – you can check the Boeing brochure for a brief description http://www.smartcockpit.com/pdf/flightops/safety/0022/. But suffice to say in that instance, it did continue and effective deceleration didn't occur until within 1,000 feet of the runway end.
Unwell_Raptor - it's been said a few times already pages back.