Is there any information concerning the kind of ground at the point of first ground-contact?
I think itīs very important wether its deep sand or just rock covered with an inch of sand. In the latter case there would be no tiremarks recognizable from distance, however the belly could get enough sand out of the way and to the side, thus looking like we see it now.
In my humble oppinion the whole area looks like solid rock, covered with smaller rock and a bit of sand, also further down in the crash-zone there are not enough recognizable marks on the ground.
What is the reason for assuming the gear to be down by analyyzing the damage to the wheels? There is nothing of the aircraft left undamaged, so i assume that the gear would not look better when it had been retracted before.
During a goaround situation, at what time is the gear retraction initiated and how long will it travel?
Is it known, what type of aircraft the captain flew before his time on the bus? If he flew a mainly manhandeld aircraft before, would it be understandable that he would continue to land the bus in manual mode (forgive me if i dont use the correct phrase here) thus doing an manual flown visual approach?
Reason for that asumption, the weather-report was not that bad, he was familiar with the field, he for sure knew the problems with the VOR, and he would naturally rely less on ATC knowing their deficiencies. So do the old thing, fly in visual and look for the field, it may even be quicker, not bad after a long flight.
When recognizing the degrading visibility he was not setup for an quick jump to an Instrument-Approach to the same runway, therefore deciding early for a goaround with intention to circle to the other runway? And then the goaround went wrong. Not prepared for it, no navaids set, therfore a visual goaround...
How is the acceleration in an A330 with nearly all fuel gone and only a limited pax load? At what speed would it be flown? How often would the crew have done a goaround before (except in the sim, i dont value that for real life expirience )? Let me edit my last sentence in brackets here: It is not my intention to disqualify simulator flying at all. But assuming a situation with spatial disorientation during TOGA could have happened like in the Gulf-Air Accident, a training situation like that will probably not happen in the simulator, or are they meanwhile as good as real live concerning movemeent and enviromental reality?
Dont kill me for asking to many questions, just trying to get some thinking going.
I cant believe that a qualified crew is that much of course and that much too low on an automated approach in basically fairly well weather at their homebase. There must be reasons, and the mentioned points concerning quality of local airmanship are thin ice.
franzl
Last edited by RetiredF4; 16th May 2010 at 08:17.