Not questioning the chosen landing field here, all done properly as Captain on the day saw fit... but a pax was quoted on a news program (sorry forgot which channel) as saying that at the time of the event one of the flight crew was in the galley getting a drink. Can anyone confirm this? If so, the possibility of an injured f/d member thrown into the mix would sure as hell necessitate getting to a landing site asap! Just mentioning this as some seem to think taking a leisurely trip down to Perth the better option. *If* one of the tech crew were in the galley at the time, I can imagine they'd be pretty shaken up and in no condition to spend more time behind the controls than necessary...
I know a little bit about the whole aerodynamics/circraft control thing (lowly CC here
) I just had a question regarding how the whole autopilot thing on the Airbus works... I know that when AP is on it will try to compensate through turbulence to maintan the chosen heading/alt etc... I know there would be a limited amount of speed/turbulence that it could be used in (someone give me the correct term please it's escaped me!)
My question is *If* an extremely severe CAT was involved, could it have been a case of computer just not coping? I know they would have tested those kinds of scenarios during manufacture but is it likely that turbulence could have CAUSED the failure in the first place, if there was a failure?