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Google translation...
AF 447: should they wait to discover the wreck?
Thanks to its computers and the protections they develop a new generation Airbus (Fly-By-Wire) does not "pick up" not in control law for normal flight. It is a major selling point for the builder who believes that pilot training is not necessary in this area (Pierre BAUD, vice president of Airbus Industrie, 1998).
In case of dropout, no action to perform from memory. The technical crew of an Airbus must refer to an additional procedure described in a document located in a trunk-lid opening near the driver. This procedure is necessary to apply the maximum thrust (TOGA) and simultaneously reduce the pitch.
For years (since 1998) that the aviation community knows that this procedure is dangerous *. The thrust of the engines beneath the wings may, in certain circumstances, generate a couple very important to pitch hard to counter. We must change and cause drivers to implement it. In 1999, William Wainwright, Chief Test Pilot Airbus Industrie reaffirms yet: "There Is No Need for this type of continuation training [upset recovery] is protected fly-by-wire aircraft."
November 27, 2008: an A 320 crashes near Perpignan killing seven people. When checking the operation of the protections in effect, dropping the alarm goes off, the captain applied the current procedure by increasing the engine thrust (TOGA). It follows a couple nose-very important that the pilot can not overcome. The A 320 wins and struck the sea Conclusion: This procedure is wrong, it must be changed.
6 months later, another aircraft type Airbus Fly-By-Wire picks up and hit the ocean ...
June 1, 2009: Flight 447 crashes in the middle of the Atlantic killing 228 people. In his progress report No. 1, the BEA said in the "facts" that the A 330 "appears to have struck the surface of the water line of flight, with a strong vertical acceleration. "In its interim report # 2, the BEA confirms that" the aircraft struck the water surface with a trim, low angle and with a significant vertical velocity. "
In its "Investigation Update" of May 27, 2011, the BEA said that the last values recorded by the FDR is "a plate of 16.2 degrees nose up, a roll of 5.3 degrees left and a vertical speed of - 10 912 ft / min. "
The similarity between the deductions from BEA after the crash and the elements of FDR issued in May 2011 suggests that the BEA and Airbus knew very quickly, as most close observers, that the F-330 A GZCP had won some seconds after the last known position (LKP). The BEA does not make the decision to search the wreckage near the LKP ... at the beginning of 2011. Why?
Should we wait?
* Work of the "Working Group" established by the FAA in 1996 on a recommendation from the NTSB
Source:
Les dossiers noirs du transport aérien