Question:
Hi everyone,
I probably should know the answer to this, but how many modern airliners in cruise flight were brought down by catastrophic structural failure after encountering severe weather? And let's exclude accidents where the plane had a previously diagnosed or undiagnosed mechanical problem that contributed to it (you can argue a few weather accidents on those grounds).
Yes, most pilots avoid them. But I can only think of stalls, hail damage, etc, while in cruise, and none where the plane blew apart enough where it was uncontrollable. And uncontrollable to the point where the pilots didn't have time to contact ATC. Here it was over in a matter of minutes.
Not sure if I've heard of a modern airliner with radar and significant over-engineering just catastrophically failing in weather. Not talking about a private pilot who "inadvertently" wanders into a thunderstorm out of stupidity.
Just curious. Seems these planes venture into these situations commonly, doing their best to avoid if at all possible. These pilots were obviously briefed on the weather to expect enroute.
Was wondering. Not that it matters, but I'm still in the purely speculative out-of-envelope stall in horrendous weather, whether or not it was precipitated by some other distraction (such as pitot tube icing deja vu).
This pilot obviously had serious skills (20k+ hours?!) in this part of the world.
I honestly can only think of that semi-modern Mt. Fuji encounter (previously mentioned) that were beyond the plane's limits. But my memory is fading quickly as I age, and those accidents I investigated in the past are slipping my mind!
Just trying to gain some facts from experts with things being so speculative at this point.
Thank you everyone!