Air Algerie loses contact with its plane leaving Ouagadougou

[viking28]

One question for the old flyers:

Is the MD 83 known to be tricky to recover from a stall ?

[PorcoRosso]

"Toutes les hypothèses seront examinées dans le cadre de l'enquête. Ce que nous savons d'une façon certaine, c'est que la météo était mauvaise cette nuit-là, que l'équipage de l'avion avait demandé à se dérouter, puis à rebrousser chemin, avant que le contact ne soit perdu", a déclaré le ministre au cours d'une conférence de presse.

I would be curious to hear or read the official statement

This one is controversial as you can also read it this way :

Ce que nous savons d'une façon certaine, c'est que la météo était mauvaise cette nuit-là, que l'équipage de l'avion avait demandé à se dérouter, puis a rebroussé chemin, avant que le contact ne soit perdu"

Which means ..the crew requested to divert, then turned back (not : then TO turn back )

I suspect a journo confusion. If it´s the case, we are left with one request to divert, not two.

[jcjeant]

Hi,

I would be curious to hear or read the official statement

Hear will not make a difference
"rebrousser" or "rebroussé" ... that's no difference when you hear it
The only way for be sure is to read the official transcript of the statement
Normally the journalists have received this transcript after the conference

[Kbboca]

How long was weather bad on route?

Is there any way at this point to see how long it took the weather to clear in the area on the route? (i.e. whether a weather delay of 1 - 2 hours would have been advisable?)

Does anyone know of links to an archived satellite or radar loop?

[Nemrytter]

The MCS persisted for many hours, the first opportunity for an semi-clear route was between 6z and 7z, depending on how brave you felt.

[Kbboca]

Flight data successfully extracted

From one of the lastest articles in the French Press, it sounds as if the investigators have been successful in recovering flight data from the FDR. Analysis of the CVR (which I read elsewhere was much more heavily damaged) is continuing...

Lundi en fin de journée, le BEA a fait savoir que les paramètres du vol AH5017 d'Air Algérie (vitesse, altitude, trajectoire, etc.) ont été extraits de la boîte noire, mais la récupération des conversations dans le cockpit contenues dans la seconde boîte noire était toujours en cours.

Crash du vol d?Air Algérie*: "l'équipage avait demandé à rebrousser chemin", Tourisme - Transport

Translation: As of the end of the day on Monday, the BEA made known that the parameters of Air Algerie flight AH 5017 (speed, altitude, course, etc.) were extracted from the black box, but the recovery of the conversations in the cockpit contained in the second black box were still continuing.

[WilyB]

From the video of Laurent Fabius in the above post, it appears quite clear he stated that the crew asked first to divert, then asked to turn back.

[ZAZOO]

There is much more to what we have heard and seen concerning the tragic end of Air Algerie AH5017.

Flight crew requesting for altitude change or rerouting due weather is a normal by professional crew members and is done every day in this part of the world due to the kind of extreme and violent weather we always encounter here....

I don't believe this aircraft crashed so violently due to weather. No way.

The quick reaction by the French president and his ministers is highly suspect.

I believe they know more and are keeping it to themselves.

Come on guys....Due weather...I don't think so...!?!?..

[AlphaZuluRomeo]

@ Kbboca: for high profile cases (read: non-GA), the BEA publishes information both in French (reference language) and in English.

Here is the English version of the Information published today:

Flight AH 5017 on 24 July 2014

[Titania]

Official Statement

Official statement by Mr. Fabius.

Grammatically, the statement does mean there were two requests, one to divert and one to turn back.

Having heard the video, I would agree too that this is the proper meaning of the sentence (I am French mother-tongue).

[etudiant]

It may also be read as: 'the crew requested a course change, then turned back'.
The transcript will of course show if there was a request to return, but I'd think it would have been highlighted if they had.

[Shadoko]

"It may also be read as: 'the crew requested a course change, then turned back'."

No, the sentence is : "l'équipage de l'avion avait demandé à se dérouter, puis à rebrousser chemin avant que le contact soit perdu" (Salle de presse - France-Diplomatie-Ministère des Affaires étrangères) :
the French sentence for "then turned back" would have been "puis a rebroussé chemin"...

Except if the transcript is grammatically erroneus, it translates in : the crew had asked to a course change, then [had asked] to turn back before contact was lost.

[CommonI]

Did he request to turn back to his original course, or to turn back to his point of departure?

[Shadoko]

Litteral for "rebrousser chemin" is: to take the same path in the other way.
I think it means "go back to departure point". See there: Traduction rebrousser chemin anglais | Dictionnaire français-anglais | Reverso

[etudiant]

It seems to me that the language could easily be read either way, first as:
"l'équipage de l'avion avait demandé à se dérouter, puis à rebrousser chemin avant que le contact soit perdu"


Or as:
"l'équipage de l'avion avait demandé à se dérouter, puis à rebrousse chemin avant que le contact soit perdu"


The two sound the same but the second means the crew began to return, perhaps on their own initiative, before the contact was lost.


Presumably there would be additional AT communications which would clarify exactly what the crew did. I've seen no report that the crew had requested a return to base.

[jcjeant]

Hi,

It seems to me that the language could easily be read either way, first as:
"l'équipage de l'avion avait demandé à se dérouter, puis à rebrousser chemin avant que le contact soit perdu"

It is not to read either way
It's only one way to read it .. and that to read the official transcript of the french gov (link in a message above)

l'équipage de l'avion avait demandé à se dérouter, puis à rebrousser chemin avant que le contact soit perdu

The crew asked first to divert and second to go back (return)to the take off airport (seems it was already to late)

[ATC Watcher]

Well, in any case this info is already known by investigators as the ATC-R/T recordings have been listened to , and frankly, unless the crew stated why they wanted to turn back, which they did not, whether it is was request or not, does not help us much .

I have heard this morning that the FDR was already looked at last night by the BEA, so if the clue is visible in tehre , e.g. , mechanical failure , loss control after turbulence , . stall ,or sudden destructive decompression , etc.. we should know pretty soon.

As stated before , it seems the CVR is badly dammaged but not unrecoverable, according the BEA it might take some " weeks"

[andrasz]

I would not put a too fine point on the semantics of the Fabius statement, not the first time it would happen that a politician makes an informed but imprecise comment fueling speculation.

With the FDR data available I would expect that a factual report will be out fairly soon.

[threemiles]

I am surprised, too, that a word of a politician or a news speaker does deserve credit in this thread. At all.

[PorcoRosso]

Hi guys, bonjour ATC

Woah, I did not expect to open a can of worms about the various ways this statement from Fabius could be heard.
French being my mother tongue, I wanted to point out it coudl be understoon both ways. It seems it´s not the case and the crew made two requests.
I do not think it´s actually relevant.
Let´s wait for FDR and CVR to bring more clues.