bad weather, et al
To Old Car. and others.......
There is no doubt that some weather started the sequence that resulted in many lives being lost. The stoopid air data sensors went into la la land. That started the sequence of events and human responses.
Anybody disagree?
So we have air data becoming unreliable, we have a system that keeps reverting to less and less "limits", we have a myriad of cautions and warnings for the crew to accept and act upon, and it is NIGHT!
I will gladly take any non-pilot system engineer or software engineer or..... and place them into the situation that the AF447 folks faced. What would they do?
Well, what's your point, Gums?
The point is to get from point "A" to "B", or drop bombs on the enema, or take recce pictures, or take some SLF's to see the Grand Canyon, or .....
BOTTOMLINE:
If we insist upon human crews in our commercial aircraft, then we have to design and implement systems that help them, but still demand some degree of basic airmanship and training.
I cannot judge the actions of the AF447 crew we see from the sparse reports from BEA, given the data we have now.
I can surely judge the sensors' failure and the control logic that causes warnings and cautions and does not take inton account a basic principle of aero - angle of attack.
I would hope we give the humans just a fighting chance to keep the plane flying when unexpected things happen, and we could point fingers at each other later.
I know that many here have flown thousands of hours and have delivered millions of SLF's. Makes me feel comfortable, to a point.
But how far are we gonna go with automation and systems that will "protect" you regardless of your basic airmanship and training?
respectfully.......... and maybe we need another forum/thread for these thots.