"Can you tell me with 100% absolute certainty that a flight deck crew of aviators the caliber of Alfred Haynes and Dennis Fitch might not have accomplished a miracle?
We need to look no farther then the annals of any nations military aviation to find incidents of planes and/or people surviving catastrophic damage. The sad truth is that while events doomed the air-frame the specific cause of the crash was flight crew error.
How is it OK to argue that without the titanium strip none of the other deficiencies really matter yet dismiss the actual cause of the crash (FE's incorrect response). I'll use UA 232 as my argument. Had a less qualified flight crew destabilized the aircraft resulting in a high altitude loss of control and crash...many of you would be arguing the design flaws of the DC-10 as the root cause and dismissing the upset...since the plane was clearly doomed."
SLFinAZ the UA 232 is a red herring as it's no way comparable with this incident.
Firstly it happened at altitude and secondly they had an extra qualified pilot travelling on the flight. So the time they had to deal with the problem was considerably greater than the Concorde crew. That in no way takes away from the skill and expertise of the UA 232 crew. Yes the design flaws of the DC10 were the root cause of that incident.
To blame the late FE for the crash is simplistic and flawed and to expect any flight crew to be able to perform "miracles" is preposterous.
If you read my earlier post I clearly state that whilst the other deficiencies had no direct bearing on the crash, it does not mean that action should not be taken to correct them. The crash would have happened with or without the deficiencies.
Can I tell you with 100% certainty that the UA 232 crew would not have saved the day. They are human so I doubt that they can perform "miracles". The best people to answer that question would be the UA 232 crew. In fact this line of argument is better suited to the pub as it resembles the typical pub discussion comparing sporting teams of different eras, whilst fun it has no value in this case.
Last edited by Nick Thomas; 16th Dec 2012 at 23:28.
Reason: spelling