mm43:
I've prepared a graphic which shows the ETO times SALPU, ORARO and TASIL calculated from the 0150z ~ 0200z GS of 464KT. On passing SALPU the SBFN-SSR would have received the last squawk from AF447 - at about 254NM from the radar. The 0214z Ultimo Reporté and the now discredited 0214z ACARS position are also shown.
Hi,
It is nice, but:
- 0214 position doesn't exist.
- 0150 & 0200 exact positions are still yet unpublished,
If extracted from the BEA flightplan reconstitued, due to its scale, it is not possible to make any precise position within a margin of error of 3-5 NM.
So, it is actually not possible (for any one of us) to figure out if any flight plan deviation occured already before 0210, nor to compute the aircraft airspeed at all these points, including the last one.
On the other hand, the BEA should be able to do it from the vectors recieved at 0150, 0200 and 0210 (see my post above) and it should be able to verify precisely the distance actually flown (with airspeed, temp, wind, and heading) between those points, including the final vector after 0210.
This is what I found seriously missing in the preliminary report, as they only published the last position, and previously also the altitude (FL350, during June 6th conference). My opinion is that F-GZCP airspeed was already reported erroneous in this last position report.
S~
Olivier