There was some discussion at about midday Sunday 7th June, in posts around #465, concerning thepossibility and usefulness of an automated Mayday facility. The objections seem to be from traditionalist professionals who quote the Aviate, Navigate Communicate philosophy drummed into them at an early stage in their flying career. ANC is perfectly reasonable in situations where the flight crew have the time and space to establish reasonably stable flight, work out where they are and where they can go in the immediate future, and then inform the rest of the world. In such cases early communication may not be of any advantage to that flight or to anyone else. However, there are other situations where very early announcement could be very useful. If coupled to a GPS and other sensors, an automated Mayday could give precise positional and other information; it could produce high quality sound in clear English, without the intrusion of background noise; it could make other aircraft aware of someone nearby who was having to ignore normal separation rules; and if the worst came to the worst, it would give SAR a good position from which to start searching.
On different theme,
Interflug speculates (in post #498 at the time of writing):
could someone have tampered with the documented weight in order to stay within margins, avoid timeout etc?
could the pilots have been unaware they were too heavy?
Would any significant excess weight become apparent to the crew once airbourne as a difference between actual and expected Angle of Attack for the current altitude and airspeed? Are instrument displays sufficiently precise to make any such discrepancy apparent, and if so is it the sort of thing the crew would notice and take into account?