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Missing Air France Jet over the Atlantic ...

Unfortunately, it may be safe to say thay we will never know exactly what happened, considering the chances of finding the black box are probably about 0%.
 
mtsupilot09 said:
This A330 must have experienced some extremely severe weather for the crew to not be able to get a call out. Strange story.
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First thing that popped in my mind was hail (typically associated with thunderstorms if my memory serves me correctly). If I recall from API/Ground School days, baseball size hail can FOD out an engine and bring down a jet fairly quickly...

385180510_ee320151d7.jpg
 
Ken_gone_flying said:
Unfortunately, it may be safe to say thay we will never know exactly what happened, considering the chances of finding the black box are probably about 0%.
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Fairly certain they emit a signal that makes locating them a whole lot easier.
 
The above article claims that the aircraft lost pressure. At that speed and flight level, the pilots would have become victims of hypoxia in what? A few seconds?
 
I think time of useful consciousness is 30-60 seconds at 35,000...

edit: cut that in half for a rapid-D
 
To the airline pilots around here (A4s in particular), what do you do if you have rapid decompression while over top a huge, severe thunderstorm cell? Seems like you'd have no choice but to take your chances in the storm. How long is the crew's O2 supply good for? Passengers only have about 10 minutes, if I remember correctly (though I think that was an FAA-mandated figure, don't know what the French regs are).
 
wlawr005 said:
Unfortunately that thing is under about 10,000 feet of water...
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I would think they might put a lot of effort into finding the wreckage and the 'black' boxes to figure out what happened, since it is a big unknown and that doesn't happen too often with modern airliners. I would not be surprised if we helped out with one of our salvage ships.
 
armada1651 said:
To the airline pilots around here (A4s in particular), what do you do if you have rapid decompression while over top a huge, severe thunderstorm cell? ....
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Easy answer: you shoulda' stayed in bed.

But: at the risk of giving a hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question ... you'd have to go down. Mebbe go for the outsides of the storm to minimize its effects, if possible, but you'd have to go down in any case.

Or figure out a way to quit breathing and keep flyin' ... :)


 
armada1651 said:
To the airline pilots around here (A4s in particular), what do you do if you have rapid decompression while over top a huge, severe thunderstorm cell? Seems like you'd have no choice but to take your chances in the storm. How long is the crew's O2 supply good for? Passengers only have about 10 minutes, if I remember correctly (though I think that was an FAA-mandated figure, don't know what the French regs are).
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IIRC the Checlist, it's O2 masks on; crew comm establish; seat belt sign on; announce to cabin, "emergency descent" etc.

The crew immediately dons the masks. In the smaller Airbus, minimum O2 pressure is enough for both crew-members for "two hours at 10,000 ft."

Normally, if a thunderstorm is severe, it usually tops above cruise altitude, so you wouldn't normally find yourself "above one." You would have given it a wide berth. And if accidently in one, with or without radar, a 180 would be logical for the decompression descent.

BWTFDIK That's what black boxes and experts are for.
 
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