Hi Chris,
Originally Posted by Chris Scott
takata,
Without invoking further eye strain, are you confident of the annotations for engines #1 & #2? I'm wondering how easy they are for the recovery team to distinguish in the debris field. For example, I'd be surprised if the accessory gearboxes are handed, and the pylons and cowlings are presumably elsewhere.
My poor eyes are still able to distinguish #1 (up) & #2 (bottom) the way I pictured them. The possibility is that those numbers may have been used for wreckage identification rather than port/starboard correspondance if they were unable to indentify their correct place under the wings at this early point.
Pylons, capots (or part of them) are definitively elsewhere -in Toulouse- as they were recovered floating -it was pictured in the BEA annexe to the second report showing those aircraft parts already recovered.
Originally Posted by Chris Scott
You will remember the argument some of us had, when the debris field was first pictured, about debris-orientation versus heading/track at sea-level impact? [wink] (Don't get yourself into hot water like I did.) You suggest:
"I'm feeling most of the wreckage at the bottom is somewhat related with the heading at impact (WSW), but it may be due to an illusion without having on hand the specific model showing all the mechanics involved."
That was my feeling at the time, but – if labelled correctly – the engines seem to have switched sides.
Or, they were not numbered for this purpose (possibly from the early high scan passes as this document dated from the REMUS search before the first ROV dive)...
A very rough model of the wreckage spreading at the bottom related to surface ending place will take into account three categories of wreckage:
1. pieces buoyant;
2. pieces buoyant for some time, then sinking;
3. pieces going down immediately.
* Category 3 should be a very close carbon copy of the surface impact spreading (before sinking) considering what little time it will take before reaching the deep where the currents are barely nil.
* Category 2 should drift on surface as long as it takes to lose all its buoyancy, then sink also mostly straight down. Some pieces may consequently end at some distance from their initial place at impact.
* Category 1 should be recovered far away if spoted at the surface several days later.
Overall, this is not very surprising that the engines are lying at the edge of the debris field (excepted one large piece) considering it is presumed that they were the first to hit the surface.