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Airbus A320 crashed in Southern France

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Airbus A320 crashed in Southern France

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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:36
  #301 (permalink)  
 
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The RoD achieved is half that quoted in the FCTM
Agree - but that is with speedbrake, and as per FCTM is selected with care and after initial descent established. Need I say more ?
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:38
  #302 (permalink)  
 
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Germanwings-Crews in Düsseldorf und Stuttgart verweigern Start - SPIEGEL ONLINE

In it (about half way) there is mention that the aircraft was grounded in DUS in AOG mode due to a problem with the "Nose Landing Door". Surely did not cause the CFIT.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:41
  #303 (permalink)  
 
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Crash site from the air

http://download.media.tagesschau.de/....webm.h264.mp4

and in HD
http://download.media.tagesschau.de/...webxl.h264.mp4

Video of the crash site from helicopter.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:44
  #304 (permalink)  
 
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Re decompression training.
This is all done in the course of a normal LPC/OPC as part of a three year training cycle. Often incorporated into a LOFt exercise. Not many civil pilots will have experienced the stuff that the military do, unless previously in the forces.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:52
  #305 (permalink)  
 
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rapid decompression?

I would speculate that decompression issue in the climb (with crew incapacitated) is inconsistent with the A/C going into descent shortly after reaching CRZ ALT.
It would have stayed in CRZ ALT or selected ALT until out of fuel if I am not mistaken (see Helios).

Somewhere in the press it mentioned that A/C had come out of maintenance on Monday. If this is not significant then it might at least be noteworthy.

FL380 is pretty close to FL390 which is the standard max. service ceiling for A320. What's the UTC? A few seconds?
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:53
  #306 (permalink)  
 
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Another tragedy in our sky's.

I think the strangest thing about all the major accidents over the last 13 months have occurred at cruise level, what has always been seen as the safest part of flight
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:54
  #307 (permalink)  
 
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Very Tough for Recovery Crews

The condition of the remains will be a serious challenge and it's much harder when children are involved

Many of those involved in the recovery of SR111 needed counseling. I hope the French authorities will ensure help is made available to the recovery Crews.

Significant debris has collected in the drainage channels implying initial impact on the rock face above.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:55
  #308 (permalink)  
 
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The maintenance on monday might have just been a daily check.... the C check maintenance has been disclosed already. I would not get caught up on the 'coming out of maintenance' scenario
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:56
  #309 (permalink)  
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Having done drills, not in the chamber, fitting a mask to a headset it was not easy or particularly quick. One question would be how often and when such drills were practised.

Then the question of pre-flight checks. Do the pilots test for flow every leg?
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 20:58
  #310 (permalink)  
 
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Speed question

Can anyone help me (non pilot, sorry) explain why the plane's (ground)speed didn't increase even though it was descending with almost 4000 fpm?
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:01
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There is a test button on each of the masks where a yellow/white ball can be seen in the test window can be seen during the test..... coupled with this the oxygen pressure of the bottle can be seen on the ECAM
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:05
  #312 (permalink)  
 
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Can anyone help me (non pilot, sorry) explain why the plane's (ground)speed didn't increase even though it was descending with almost 4000 fpm?
Airbrakes.

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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:05
  #313 (permalink)  
 
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groundspeed in descent

Mathematically speaking, with everything else being equal (IAS, wind etc.) the G/S should decrease when going into descent. As most descents are at a relatively small angle though (3-5 deg FPA?) the difference should be small.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:06
  #314 (permalink)  
 
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Post Crew Oxygen Bottle Shut-Off Valve

There were some references to the flight-crew oxygen system status in previous posts.

In my company we had incidents where the shutoff-valve of the replacement oxygen bottle was not fully opened by maintenance after installation - just enough to give a correct gauge readout.

And it took several crews / flights until the first correctly done system check detected that fault by observing the decreasing supply-pressure.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:07
  #315 (permalink)  
 
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@MatrixMan: That incident was 4000fpm from FL31 to FL27. This is from FL38 to FL06 + CFIT. Why was the crew not able to recover during this decent phase?

Lufthansa mentioned all Airbus in service are latest software, procedures and AoA probes - according to latest safety bulletin.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:08
  #316 (permalink)  
 
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An emergency descent following a decompression with structural damage must be done in speed mode, i.e., the pilot changes from Mach to speed in order not to accelerate the aircraft during descent.

The rate of descent is therefore much lesser than when done at MMO.

An emergency descent caused by a catastrophic event is a brutal event and exposes the pilots (and passengers) for a longer time to hipoxy especially if masks are not properly don.

We normally train the emergency descent to be done in two steps/loops: the first thing to do is to turn and pull the altitude selector to a lower altitude, then the heading, the speed knob and the speed-brakes.

This is done having in mind the need to start an immediate descent not loosing time with details (what altitude? What heading? What speed?)

Only on the next loop we fine-tune those parameters.

They may have failed to terminate the second loop, due to having lost consciousness.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:08
  #317 (permalink)  
 
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While the door in and of itself might not be in a pressurized area - if it were to come loose, could it have ripped the skin of the aircraft, and could that rip have extended into a pressurized area? Alternately, if the door came off entirely, could it have hit and damaged another part of the aircraft?
Yes, it could, but I'm not aware of any precedent, on any aircraft type. Also, top of climb is not when you'd expect it to happen - peak TAS was earlier, in the climb.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:10
  #318 (permalink)  
 
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agree this could be possible.........we have a duplicate inspection in our company when we replace crew oxygen cylinders to ensure fully open isolation valve
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:11
  #319 (permalink)  
 
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Tankertrashnav, Post#310 (at this moment)

In response to your query, I know of no airline/aviation authority that offers or mandates that eye opening training for its flight crew. $ $ $ as usual.
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Old 24th Mar 2015, 21:13
  #320 (permalink)  
 
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Toxic fumes have not been discussed

What does surprises me is that so far, by following the thread, the possibility of incapacitation due to toxic fumes on the flight deck hasn't been considered or discussed.
I am -only- cabin crew, but as such flying the skies for two decades, so I do have some insight.

Fact is this:

http://avherald.com/h?article=434e753b/0019

was an A319 though, but nevertheless a very serious incident!

Last edited by GreyhoundMUC; 24th Mar 2015 at 21:14. Reason: wrong link
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