SaturnV ===> I share your bewilderment.
Just to live up to my name, it looks to me that the interval between the loss of the FDR and the CVR is nearer to 5 sec. than 7 to 8 secs.:
The engine EPRs seem to have been recorded in the sequence 1-2-3-4, about one report/sec. The last good report I can see seems to be for #1 just before the 07:27:58 gridline. We don’t know the exact times because the numbers on the grid lines on the time axis are rounded off, leading to the grid interval numbers sometimes beng 2 secs. and sometimes 1 sec. The next EPR report should have been for #2 about one second later, but it was never recorded. An altitude report should also have been recorded before the missing #2 was due, but also wasn’t recorded. Vertical and lateral acceleration reports were recorded at 4 per sec., and the first report to be missing would have been made just before the grid line markrd 07:27:58, and very shortly after (maybe less than 1/10 sec. after) the last signal for pitch was recorded, which, as you say, was the last good parameter of any to be recorded. So the FDR stopped millisecs. before the 07:27:58 gridline.
The CVR stopped at 07:28:03 (synchronized time), so the interval between the loss of FDR and CVR is nearer 5 sec., not 7 to 8 secs.
This does not alter the validity of what you are saying. I agree with you, its bewildering. Im just being picky about the numbers.
Question:
What progressive failures could there have been outside the pressure hull which would have allowed apparently normal flight to continue for a time? e.g. in the tail structure or wings. The tail and recorders seem to have finished up 2.6 km NE of the main wreckage, maybe due to drifting in the wind but also maybe not.
Last edited by PickyPerkins; 11th Jul 2002 at 13:15.