Bearfoil
Der Speigel Online published a couple of days ago a rather strange and perplexing article on the demise of AF447. The tone of the article was that younger crews were breaking the regs regularly by falsifying MTOWs and when range became an issue, filed for Bordeux in the case of AF447 with the alternate Paris Charles de Gaulle. It was then claimed that getting to the optimum CRZ ALT as soon as possible and avoiding all enroute deviations was the next objective.
Luftfahrt: Gehirnschlag im Cockpit - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten - Wissenschaft
With regard to the V/S, the following translated comment was made:-
Many parts of the wreckage recovered were no bigger than one square meter. The shear lines run at the impact angle. Consequently, the aircraft has not broken up longitudinally, but has been compressed and broken by the acceleration force of a belly impact with the water, though with a positive 5 degree attitude. The large vertical tail fin, recovered by the Brazilian Navy from the water was particularly revealing. It was torn away from its anchorage and flew away to the front. The measured acceleration force on impact of the A330 was more than 36 times the force of gravity.
The "flew away to the front" is something the BEA have never mentioned.
I suspect the article was really aimed at the French, as reference was made to findings (yet to be published) by the BFU on a LH A320 wing scrape landing incident - with the finger pointing at Airbus/BEA.
mm43