START OF FACTUAL STATEMENTS
The investigators will not find much use in looking at the cockpit controls as there is no recognisable cockpit. Edited note: at least not reported as being found and take away for investigation
The aircraft was flown by the crew on the previous sector. The Number 2 thrust reverser had been locked out for a period of time.
If you look at some of the photographs circulating in Brazil, you will find three brake packs ON. You might see one brake pack OFF.
The designated captain has been identified.
THIS IS THE END OF THE FACTUAL STATEMENT.
THIS IS THE START OF THE SPECULATIVE STATEMENT
If you look carefully at the photographs, you might see why the local talk is of post impact damage leading to brake release.
END
Comments:
Please separate out interesting talk of Airbus related technical failures from the facts surrounding this accident. If it is speculation, please say so.
According to an investigator friend in PM conversations relating to this accident, and he is ok to quote this..
DFDR data is not perfect. There is a lot of misinterpretation by "beginners" relating to (1) forgetting to correlate the data and ensure that it was wired up the right way round (2) forgetting at exactly which point in the data frame second the data were recorded and thus ending up comparing not one second intervals across data streams but 1.8 and 0.2 second intervals (3) forgetting that DFDR time needs to be correlated with "real" time as sometimes the clocks run fast or slow in some older recorders. The investigator does not know what type was fitted to this aircraft to know if (3) applies in this case.
Our Man.