Airbus A320 crashed in Southern France
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Eye-witness account
Eye-witness account
A hotel worker in Digne, the closest town to the suspected crash site, has told BBC Radio 5 live the plane was flying "very low". William says there are now several helicopters arriving at the site of the accident. He added that access to the crash site will be "very difficult" and that the area, normally covered in snow, is currently dry.
A hotel worker in Digne, the closest town to the suspected crash site, has told BBC Radio 5 live the plane was flying "very low". William says there are now several helicopters arriving at the site of the accident. He added that access to the crash site will be "very difficult" and that the area, normally covered in snow, is currently dry.
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I am very worried - with the latest happenings in Asia - that this is another stall scenario and I pray to whatever deities are out there that a stall scenario is NOT what happened here!!
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The weather was reported fine this morning in the area but is now deteriorating quickly and there are a lot of low clouds. The ceiling is quite low now as we can see some video here. There is a ski resort not very far and the terrain is also very snowy. A lot of people have seen the aircraft flying very low and some also the sound of the impact. The region is of very hard access and it will take a lot of hours to reach the site. Some helicopters pilots reported that debris were disseminated on about 2sq km.
The King Felipe of Spain is in France today and has spoken some minutes ago at he Elysée Palace about this tragedy. He mentioned that there was also some Turkish citizens on board. About 45 Spanish were on board plus German citizens.
The distress signal at 1047 seemed to have been radioed at about 5500 feet.
The King Felipe of Spain is in France today and has spoken some minutes ago at he Elysée Palace about this tragedy. He mentioned that there was also some Turkish citizens on board. About 45 Spanish were on board plus German citizens.
The distress signal at 1047 seemed to have been radioed at about 5500 feet.
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Is 400 knots GS and 3000fpm ROD (4.1 degree slope) consistent with a stall?
We'd expect much lower GS and higher ROD. AF447 went down at around 10,000 fpm, and although an A320 is not an A330, parameters would probably not be that far apart.
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So much nonsense is being suggested here. Let's just consider what we know.
The aircraft descended quite quickly, but at a reasonable speed and apparently in a straight line. Also we are told there was a distress call. That suggests the crew were in control of the situation for most of the descent at least, and whatever the problem was, they certainly had time to think about it.
This doesn't look at all like an engine failure, or even a sudden decompression. In the latter case, if the crew coped with the initial drama, we would be looking at a routine diversion.
Much will hinge on what was said in the distress call. The 1500 press conference may deal with this.
The aircraft descended quite quickly, but at a reasonable speed and apparently in a straight line. Also we are told there was a distress call. That suggests the crew were in control of the situation for most of the descent at least, and whatever the problem was, they certainly had time to think about it.
This doesn't look at all like an engine failure, or even a sudden decompression. In the latter case, if the crew coped with the initial drama, we would be looking at a routine diversion.
Much will hinge on what was said in the distress call. The 1500 press conference may deal with this.
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Round-up of items from the French and German press
* The accident site is extremely prone to avalanches, according to a local guide; one took place only this morning.
* Deadliest French air accident since a DC-9 flew into the side of a mountain near Ajaccio (Corsica) in 1981.
* None of the victims are believed to be French. 45 Spanish; the remainder presumed mostly German and Turkish.
* Local people in the villages adjoining (which only have populations of a couple of hundred each) say that they heard nothing.
* According to La Provence, the débris field extends over an area of two square kilometres.
* Deadliest French air accident since a DC-9 flew into the side of a mountain near Ajaccio (Corsica) in 1981.
* None of the victims are believed to be French. 45 Spanish; the remainder presumed mostly German and Turkish.
* Local people in the villages adjoining (which only have populations of a couple of hundred each) say that they heard nothing.
* According to La Provence, the débris field extends over an area of two square kilometres.
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Iced sensors again?
The - at this early stage - available data is a 100% match with other sensor icing incidents on Airbus models, like this one:
Incident: Lufthansa A321 near Bilbao on Nov 5th 2014, loss of 4000 feet of altitude
another one:
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...emerge-379921/
Recovery was only possible there, because the captain was intimate beyond required airbus driver skills with the computers and pulled the critical hardware units "cold turkey". Had more "mainstream" pilots been on board, the outcome might have been comparable to what we got today.
Incident: Lufthansa A321 near Bilbao on Nov 5th 2014, loss of 4000 feet of altitude
another one:
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/art...emerge-379921/
Recovery was only possible there, because the captain was intimate beyond required airbus driver skills with the computers and pulled the critical hardware units "cold turkey". Had more "mainstream" pilots been on board, the outcome might have been comparable to what we got today.
Psychophysiological entity
Remember the Pappa India Trident. A police officer who attended the crash site said some of the injuries might have been survivable if only they could have got the medics to the site more quickly. This hull with part intact? I'm getting a bad feeling about not being able to get there quickly.
Diverskii said,
And I was about to say, yes, but what caused that glitch when
ACMS said:
If we're to have speculation, I think this is a good one. Real food for thought. The main issues with this idea are: Is the data reliable? And if so how often can one find glitches of that magnitude - i.e. is it unique? If it were reliable data and rare, I think it would be very significant.
I've found myself dropping out of the sky at night not far from there. I only had to contend with hot pieces of windshield going down my shirt and I'm very aware how unexpected occurrences like that can make a major difference in what should be routine drills. They may have had a far bigger distraction.
Diverskii said,
Think it's safe to say -14,000fpm is a glitch
ACMS said:
The 14,000 fpm is a spike possibly caused by the event triggering this crash. Possibly a pressure shock over the static ports?
The Aircraft continued at FL380 for a time after that spike then descended as you'd expect with flight idle and speed brakes extended at VMO.
Somehow the crew became disabled and unable to level off.......
The Aircraft continued at FL380 for a time after that spike then descended as you'd expect with flight idle and speed brakes extended at VMO.
Somehow the crew became disabled and unable to level off.......
If we're to have speculation, I think this is a good one. Real food for thought. The main issues with this idea are: Is the data reliable? And if so how often can one find glitches of that magnitude - i.e. is it unique? If it were reliable data and rare, I think it would be very significant.
I've found myself dropping out of the sky at night not far from there. I only had to contend with hot pieces of windshield going down my shirt and I'm very aware how unexpected occurrences like that can make a major difference in what should be routine drills. They may have had a far bigger distraction.
The flight was in cruise before the event, so the AoA probe won't have frozen at a high/inappropriate angle of attack.
There was no CB/Thunderstorm in that area if we can trust any Information available. so no icing to be expected at cruise altitude. Had they frozen during climb, the Problem would have manifested itself earlier.
Therefore no significant similarities regarding surrounding conditions.
And the AD covering this incident should have been communicated to all crews describing how to handle such an Event, should it occur.