I may be wrong but I believe that they're implying that if the pilots flew the plane without breaking ANY aeronautical laws then they would have never had enough time. Laws such as speed limits below 10000ft.
But I believe that a pilot like Chuck Yeager (assuming trained on the MD11) or other could have safely landed the plane by going into an emergency dive (with spoilers out for e.g.) and near Vne to lose potential energy and gone super direct to Halifax. Of course this would of implied flying near Vne below 10000 and way above 200 knots. But hey it's an emergency. Or he could of dumped it in the water (or field) with possibly at least some survivors.
I'd like to hear opinions from those who read this part of the report about why the investigators claim that the plane couldn't have landed at all. What about the water ditching scenario. Or the "kamakazi" direct approach to Halifax.
I just did calculations based on the data presented in the crash report. Of course I can't completely second guess the pilot's decisions but it's an interesting bit of analysing.
There was a lapse of 21 minutes between the detection of the first odour and the crash.
A maximum of 9 minutes was required to lose 33000 ft and an extra 5 minutes to get to Halifax for a total of 14 minutes.
This leaves 7 to 12 minutes spare time to diagnose and prepare for the emergency landing at the airport, field, or water.
I don't know how the investigators came to conclude that it was impossible to land somewhere. I'd like to read about other's opinions.
Here is a plot of altitude, speed, climb rate, and distance to halifax vs minutes after the hour. This covers the time when the first odour is smelled till the crash some 21 minutes latter. I'm currious to find out if they could of ditched somewhere with some survivors. I have my suspicions that they could of if they would of done a "Chuck Yeager" landing.
I believe that the canadian board didn't want to hint that they could of survived had the pilot bypassed some check lists and laws and done a direct approach at very high speeds.
Keep the blue side up; wherever UP is
From the report:
From any point along the Swissair Flight 111 flight path after the initial odour in the cockpit, the time required to complete an approach and landing to the Halifax International Airport would have exceeded the time available before the fire-related conditions in the aircraft cockpit would have precluded a safe landing.
Quote:
Schatzkiste: Some people had been wondering if going straight for Halifax would have saved the day. Apparently it wouldn't have:
A theoretical descent profile calculation, conducted by the TSB during the investigation, confirmed that, because of the rapid progression of the fire and its adverse effects on various aircraft systems and the cockpit environment, they would not have been able to complete a safe landing in Halifax, even if they had undertaken to do so at the time of the PAN PAN urgency radio communication at 10:14 p.m. ADT.
