Twitter account of Russian blogger covering the plane's promotional flights: Sergey Dolya (@dolyasergey) on Twitter
His Twitpic account: Twitpic / dolyasergey
His photo album for the trip: MobileMe Gallery

If we have indeed lost this plane, which seems highly probable now, there are a lot of photos in that last link that will be the last those people have had taken...

I just got this message, nobody I know can contact the pax on the demo flight

If you look at the pic of the overhead panel, does it look like the ELT is switched off.......

It looks "Armed" to me? Probably a normal position.

Yep your right, was looking at the wrong switch.

AseanAero..just maybe you and I are referring to the same person.

Sketchy details but I just heard from an unofficial source they found the wreck at 3,000ft near a waterfall on Gunung Salak , we will probably get official details in the morning.

I have some other details but I will wait now for the official version but it doesn't sound good.

Reuters reporting nothing official yet - just notes 50 on board

I'm more worried about the disabled TAWS...

I have no knowledge of this aircraft systems but the fault lights for TAWS maybe a normal indication with the IRS/ADIRU (insert equivalent) system turned off on the ground.

Local Sukhoi agent says 42 pax and 8 crew


50 people on board missing Sukhoi airliner | The Jakarta Post

So basically they really don't know who is on board

If the system is similar to that on other aircraft (Airbus) then there is no need to switch the GPWS system off, unless for a specific non-routine reason. The fault lights are not that interesting to me on the ground, the off light all the more(thanks for pointing that out A Floor). Again, assuming that the system is similar to what I know.

Anyway, we will have to wait a few months or years for the investigation.
Very sobering pictures.

I am aware of that, the external power may have just been applied to the aircraft which meant the TAWS computer would still have been booting when the pic was taken, but that would not explain why the TERR function was switched off.... as far as I know, this is not normally done. The picture was also taken today, the 9th of May.

Maybe as it was a demo aircraft it didn't have a terrain database installed for that region, or would it normally be part of the FMS database in which case it probably would have??

Superjet International released a statement on their website

Superjet International

"The leading-edge technologies, being the core ingredient of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 Project, penetrate its every stage – from design and development to final assembly, delivering a modern, economically efficient and globally marketable aircraft. "

Sukhoi Company (JSC) - Airplanes - Civil aviation - Sukhoi Superjet 100

Sukhoi Company (JSC) - News - News

Being as there are/were great hopes to make a new BRIC based multinational aviation project, this incident couldn't come at a worse moment, irrespective of the fatalities, eventual causes, ?human? errors.

Next after the initial quake will come the tsunami of speculation and disinformation. :uhoh:

The real "culture" of Sukhoi comes alive, if nothing, absolutely nothing, is mentioned on their page...

Sukhoi Company (JSC) - Main page

I suppose I can only throw out the suggestion of disgruntled employee sabotage or opposition sabotage. Definitely not what I'd expect from this crew. Have met both members of the flight deck of this crash a few months back, both solid pilots, I wouldn't jump to questioning their ability. Have been on a Sukhoi SJET test flight - a sturdy craft indeed. I think we need to shy away from the usual 'Russian plane - it was bound to crash' and blaming ATC. I suggest some interesting things will come out of the investigation to follow.

Gerry Soejatman ‏ @GerryS
@e_kirsanova @matyaboy @dolyasergey Not surprised. I got news that crash site found w/ aircraft split in two and bodies strewn! Not happy!

Mishap of Russian aircraft in Indonesien airspace......

What do you think will ever be published?

_______________________________

wrong spelling I guess...

The terrain elevation of the last known radar position is 1541 m.
(Google)

Dolya wrote "Copters will depart at 3:30 MSK (23:30 GMT), it's 10 min flight. No comments until then, don't call me, please."

Something very strange then, "aircraft split in two", & not "aircraft fragmented into several thousand pieces" Jet Transports do not normally arrive on mountainsides in 2 bits :hmm:

Good grief, was this possibly fuel depletion??

Agree with CaptPlaystation , it sounds strange but thats the message I received also

Revised list released

Daftar Nama 50 Penumpang Sukhoi - KOMPAS.com

Isn't it a bit premature to be publishing a passenger list? It hasn't even been confirmed to have crashed. Also some of those names look fishy. There seems to have been a "Kapt Aan" on board.

Aan is a common name here and also common to have one name with no surname

14:50 = 07:50 GMT, so almost 12 hrs ago....near the capital Jakarta..................

What country is that?
:ugh:

Yes, but the Russian names are surnames only. It's pointless and causes needless stress to publish an inaccurate list.

It's common with the media here , some of the names on the list are spelt incorrectly as well

Anyway from what I heard this evening they know where the crash site is and the crash is severe , so far nobody I know has been able to contact pax, if the weathers good they'll have helis there in the morning so I would expect an official announcement tomorrow once they have the facts.

What would cause a 3 year old demonstrator to crash with factory test pilots at the controls ? I keep thinking of that Airbus that flew into the trees years ago, finding some little unexpected 'got ya' in the fly by wire system software by flying around mountains perhaps ? ... also if you had to pick a spot in West Java for the worst most unpredictable weather it would have to be those mountains and valleys near Bogor.

All speculation , we'll get some more clues in the next few days and a final report 2 or 3 years from now

Here's what these particular mountains look like , covered in thick jungle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Salak.JPG

File:Mount Salak.JPG - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Gede_00.jpg

File:Mount Gede 00.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The last time a Russian aircraft crashed, the first priority seemed to be a Press Release detailing the "generous" compensation offered to victims families.

Cultural differences and all that. :rolleyes:

@JSCL

By "throw out", do you mean "dismiss", or do you mean "proffer the idea of sabotage with no evidence whatsoever"?

The former, I hope.

Not too unusual in flyover country, either. :rolleyes:

And now there is this from the New york times: As the Superjet entered production, the Russian television station NTV reported that 70 engineers at the manufacturing plant had obtained fake engineering diplomas by bribing a local technical college. Sukhoi said those employees were not directly involved in assembling the planes.

If this is true oh oh.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/wo...rssnyt&emc=rss

@justanotherflyer

The latter I'm afraid. It's one of a gazillion possibilities which as I said we will not know the actual reasoning until a thorough investigation has been carried out. But based on past reports as @northerntomcat has specified in the last post there, it's a possibility. I sure hope that is not the case, but it wouldn't be the first time in aviation history.

I think that NY Times is just using this accident for political marketing against Russia. Maybe they just forgot to mention other companies involved in this project like Boeing, Alenia, Snecma... When accident happened only Sukhoi is to blame.

Lets wait for official statement and then we can judge. Right now we only have rumors and personal opinions without all facts. Personally i don't think that a sabotage or technical failure was cause of the accident. But as i said we will have to wait for more info.

Well said storm eagle.....

Interesting how these threads about aviation catastrophes precede along relatively intelligently for about three pages, typically brief discussions between professionals, and then at about page four, the hysteria begins. The SLFs begin to chime in with their inept theorizing, the Microsofties ruminate about how they'd have handled the situation with their keyboards, the conspiracy theorists appear out of the aluminum... These threads have a definable half-life, and it begins to come apart at this point.

My observation would be that the professionals need absolutely no help in this regard, based for example on the numerous AF447 threads. You did however forget the PPrune invariant, that within two pages any discussion turns into A vs B bashing. Hard to see how that will happen here but I'm sure it will anyway.