PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Air Transat - "Panic in the Cockpit" recording
Old 2nd Sep 2008, 09:50
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Desert Cat
 
Join Date: May 2006
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Panic

I have listened to the recording months ago.

Can't really help in getting it back though. Sorry!

The guys just took off from CYQB and had unreliable instruments (airspeed for sure) most probably due to frozen or defective pitot static system. Winter flying and icing I believe. They thought they were stalling but could not initially quite figure out what was going on. There are some hills nearby to the north of the airport and I can understand the extreme anxiety the crew was subjected to at the time.

What is referred to as "panic" is really lots of heavy breathing from adrenaline rushing and a good measure of fear while one of the guys was basically yelling "What is going on" or something to that effect... to eventually realize "hey... we are still flying here and climbing away"... I don't remember the exact details of it but being French Canadian, I understood everything they were saying and the intonations as well...

I fly A330-340s but never flew A300 or 310 and don't have any idea how that aircraft type behaves in an unreliable airspeed (and other instruments) scenario. I have seen this kind of scenario in my recent training while I was expecting it and thought it was a hand full with all the bells and warnings that are triggered by alpha, flap and speed protections which are all bogus then. If you don't know it is coming and have never seen it in the simulator, that could be a very scary situation to be in...

These guys obviously figured it out on that day...

I have been flying military and civilian jets for 23 years and I have to admit, and although I think I have a pretty cool head, I really wander how I would have reacted in the same situation...
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