Originally Posted by
Lyman
May I rule out convection? So radiative. Were starboard engines affected? I would think so. By what amount?
No, the starboard engines were not affected because the fire was well away from the intakes of those engines. Convection causes heated gases to travel upwards and sink as they cool. In the case of the port engines, hot gases from the fire were being sucked straight into the intakes - no time for the convective process to be established.
You are defending French rules of evidence, above. Manslaughter demands "beyond a reasonable doubt" in the USA. Had I been the Titanium gearhead charged, I would have wanted all procedures exhausted.qa
I am doing no such thing - I've stated several times that I believe the continental legal process following aviation accidents to be counter-productive in many ways. Criminal procedure on the continent differs from that of the US and the UK in that the supposition is of guilt, and that guilt must be disproven rather the other way around.
There's no doubt in this case that the mechanic overstepped his bounds and performed a repair job that he didn't fully understand - even though he probably thought he was doing no harm (see also the mechanic who used the wrong window bolts leading to separation and decompression on BA5390). I don't believe criminal negligence is an appropriate description of what he did - the issue was and is far more complex.
The procedures I discuss above are not new. GC has geen around for decades, all that is required is a solution of tyre, and the 'unknowns'
In this case there was no need - the tyre remnants were reassembled and the initiating point of damage was conclusively proven to be consistent with the titanium strip. They ran theoretical and physical reconstructions over and over again and the results of those experiments proved (beyond reasonable doubt) that the failure of the tyre was initiated due to contact with the titanium strip. No other failure mode matched either the debris pattern as was found on the runway, or the velocities required to breach the fuel tank.