Here are some translations of relevant parts of another news article quoting some survivors' recalls of the accident.
-42yo female colombian doctor: "I didn't truly feel anything (wrong), it looked to me like a plain-and-normal flight until it took off (went up) and it started to "tumble". I was shot out of my seat. I saw fire and smoke ..." (No mention of loud bangs or noises)
-30yo male: "Prior flight was full, so I had to take this later one. As soon as the airplane left the ground, it made a "bandazo" (sudden move more properly translated to side-by-side-towards-one-side, but likely refers to a hard roll) to the left, then another to the right and I knew we were going to crash. He could hear people asking for help: "I'm suffocating", but didn't see the fire as it was behind him and the front of the airplane didn't (quite) catch on fire. (No mention of large bangs or noises).
-27yo female: A flight attendant and only crew survivor in the flight. Is in fairly good health and recovering from sternal/vertebrae and elbow fractures. Also has some facial burns. Expected to leave the hospital in a few days. Has already been debriefed. No details of major technical significance have been reported. She has declared to have heard cries for help among survivors, but that she was unable to move.
Some of her statements to the police have, of course, leaked to the public. Here are the ones of most technical value from a news article:
"I noticed the plane didn't have "power" (force/fuerza) when it started to take off (elevate)" - "Most other survivors agree on the plane feeling sluggish, w/o enough power to take off". She was rendered unconscious and woke up in the creek (river). She testified she wasn't inside the cabin and, therefore, didn't hear any pertaining conversations among the pilots.
Most survivors agree that they couldn't (or didn't) hear from the pilots during or before the accident or have loss memory from ever hearing from them in the few minutes prior.
41yo female, the only survivor with minor injures (possibly to be discharged in a matter of hours). Was the person to help rescue two of the children.
56yo female. 4 broken ribs, her condition is good.
68yo male, in serious conditions (burns by inhalation).
67yo female: wife of the passenger above, one of the survivors in very serious condition (head and leg fractures).
22yo male. Sternal and vertebrae fractures.
30yo female. Lung and various other traumas.
40yo male. Pelvis and femur fractures. Flying also in the front section of the plane (most of the survivors were from a 4 row section of the front).
8yo male: single leg bone fracture. His father died in the accident.
44yo female, mother of the survivor above, is the one in the worst condition.
6yo male: skull fracture and other face injures, has already left the hospital. Was flying with 16yo sister, who sadly didn't survive.
29yo male: torax trauma and lung condition.
11yo female: single femur open fracture. Mother and 14yo sister didn't survive.
47yo male: father of the girl above. Torax trauma and pelvis fracture. His life is not in danger.
Female (>40yo): burns and coma, evolving favourably. Her 20yo daughter died in the accident.
57yo male: very serious condition, several bone-deep wounds, malar and femur fractures, left ankle fracture. Lung condition.
Doctors only fear for 2 patients not fully recovering or getting worse at this point, with the rest evolving favourably and out of inmediate danger.
Identification of some 40 victims' remains could take up to 3 more weeks, as they are relatives among themselves (brothers/families) and therefore DNA tests need to be complemented with other measures.
Those of us that have listened to the evidence and the experts, I think by now have very little doubt about what happened in all likehood, in spite of the media insisting, even in this very same morning articles, on one or both engines losing thrust.
Altough nothing can be cathegorically dismissed, of course.
Only details such as why pilots didn't realize what was happening sooner or didn't take the appropiate measures to correct it are still unknown, but a number of likely scenarios are also pretty clear to help explain how that could've happen.
Those "minor" (but no doubt make-or-break) details are gonna have to wait for the investigation results, as the only 100% reliable source would be the (unfortunately damaged) FDR, as visual clues such as pieces of wings showing slats/flaps deployed or engine reversers locked, could've happened AFTER it was too late into the accident events while trying to recover from stall, become airbone again, trying to brake, etc.
By looking at the debris only w/o the FDR info, we can't really know the timeline of events. Without knowing what happened-before-or-after-what, and so many scenarios (unlikely but) still possible, such as accidental reverser deployment during T/O, well ...
FRD analysis is a loong way off, so I guess we'll meet again a few months from now to speculate on ways the aviation industry could prevent this from happening again.
Last edited by justme69; 26th Aug 2008 at 07:07.