Originally Posted by Dream Land
No one seems to put much emphasis into the fact that they drove the aircraft directly into an area of severe weather
For one very basic reason : they did NOT.
Please read again BEA report #2 :
Flight LH507 (B747-400) preceded flight AF447 by about twenty minutes at FL350.
The crew reported that it flew at the upper limit of the cloud layer and then in the clouds in the region of ORARO.
In this zone they saw green echoes on the radar on their path, which they avoided by changing their route by about ten nautical miles to the west.
While flying through this zone, which took about fifteen minutes, they felt moderate turbulence and did not observe any lightning.
They lowered their speed to the speed recommended in turbulent zones.
They saw bright St Elmo’s fire on the windshield on the left-hand side.
IMHO, this is very precisely the type of weather AF 447 went through with the very same crew reaction : speed reduced ; slight turn to the left (west) of the airway.
Please read BEA's #3 report :
the AP disconnected while the airplane was flying at the upper limit of a slightly turbulent cloud layer
@ captplaystation and many others : if each time there is this kind of weather on your route, you MUST not, as a captain, take your rest :
1) what do we train/pay F/O's for ?
2) won't the captain be exhausted at approach/landing time ?
Originally Posted by Dream Land
But if we look back at some other aircraft accidents such as the 757 with one blocked pitot tube, this crew did exactly the same thing, other accidents with multiple alarms, completely confused crews.
+1
Completely confused crews have (will ?) always been deadly.
Convective weather has nothing to do with crew confusion, icing conditions have a lot to do with blocked pitot tubes.
Another case of blocked tubes without "
driving the aircraft directly into an area of severe weather" :
They [NWA 08 crew] reported that the main cell appeared to be about 25 miles north of their flight path. However, just prior to the event the airplane entered an area of cirrus clouds with light turbulence and moderate rain with a brief period of intense rain, and hail aloft....
See NTSB report #
DCA09IA064 for more details.