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Air France plane lost over Atlantic

Abstract said:
I never really understood the purpose of black boxes. They don't change the fact that people died, and only serve to satisfy our natural curiosity of how this happened.

I must say that I've probably changed over the years, because I really hope they find that black box within the next 10 days so that they know what happened. :eek:
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Aviation has become safer over the years because we've been able to find the causes of crashes and improved technology to stop them from happening again.
 
Such as, "Oh noes, the tail fell off. Next time, we need to check those nuts and bolts on the tail"?

What does the black box tell you? Speed, direction (unless those electronic systems on the plane are completely borked at the time), incline/decline, and perhaps the timeline in which things changed?



I don't know what would be the worse fate…
Breaking up in mid-air, or hurtling down, straight down, strapped to your seat.
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Breaking up in mid-air. After a certain height, you'd hit terminal velocity and wouldn't speed up. In a way, it doesn't matter whether you fall 10 km, or just 300 metres into water. You'd reach terminal velocity in 7 seconds anyway, assuming you fall with your body spread out and horizontal (like a skydiver).

Hope you don't land where the plane hits the water, and hope you survive. Of course, then you'd have to survive the cold water. :eek:
 
Abstract said:
Such as, "Oh noes, the tail fell off. Next time, we need to check those nuts and bolts on the tail"?

What does the black box tell you? Speed, direction (unless those electronic systems on the plane are completely borked at the time), incline/decline, and perhaps the timeline in which things changed?
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Virtually every mechanical and electrical system on the plane log data to the black box. :confused:
 
Abstract said:
I never really understood the purpose of black boxes. They don't change the fact that people died, and only serve to satisfy our natural curiosity of how this happened.

I must say that I've probably changed over the years, because I really hope they find that black box within the next 10 days so that they know what happened. :eek:
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To make mistakes is to be expected, encouraged even.

Not learning from these mistakes is unforgivable.

Aka 'Never make the same mistake twice.'
 
Abstract said:
I never really understood the purpose of black boxes. They don't change the fact that people died, and only serve to satisfy our natural curiosity of how this happened.

I must say that I've probably changed over the years, because I really hope they find that black box within the next 10 days so that they know what happened. :eek:
Click to expand...

Black boxes are vital for improving aircraft safety. They are NOT there to satistfy our natural curiosity. Commercial airtravel has been getting safer year by year since it was introduced and is now incredibly safe. There are tens of thousands of flights everyday and fatal accidents are rare. Much of the improvements in safety that have occurred were enabled by studying the data that came from black boxes. They are vital in determining the cause of a crash so that changes and safety improvements can be made. Most plane crashes are due to a combination of factors, pilot error and mechanical/design problems among them. By understanding aircraft better and better we have been able to make them the safest form of transport there is.

Without the black box on Air France 447, which it does not look as though they are going to find, determining the cause of the crash will be nearly impossible. Very little wreckage was recovered, there was minimal pilot radio contact prior to the flight going down and nothing on radar when the crash occurred. The real cause of this crash may never be known, which is dangerous because whatever caused it cannot be prevented from happening again.

All hail to the black box. :cool:
 
:confused:

Automated messages sent from the plane in the minutes before the crash showed there were problems measuring air speed, investigators have said, though they said that alone was not enough to cause the disaster.
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Unless they dropped below stall speed?
 
arkitect said:
I think it is just the BBC's sloppy reporting.

Most likely remains were found.
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Generally, preservation of remains is very poor in the ocean, as there are a lot of scavengers even at that depth. I know of one or two instances where bodies in Great Lakes (freshwater) shipwrecks have retained amazing preservation of soft tissue after a century, but the ocean is a different matter. Hopefully this will at least bring closure to some of the families of the missing passengers.

The "compact" nature of the wreckage field, at a depth of 4,000 meters, indicates that the airliner may have hit the water in more or less one piece and broke up as it sank. That gives the salvage crew a decent chance of finding the black box, though if the data on it survived (which is possible) it would be an unprecedented recovery.
 
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Something about the fact that we can even locate a plane in that deep of water with such an unknown and large search area is amazing to me.
 
Aliens shot the airplane down and then abducted the humans to repopulate their lost planet! That's the only explanation as to why it seems like it completely vanished!

lol, this reminds me of Lost.
 
ender land said:
Something about the fact that we can even locate a plane in that deep of water with such an unknown and large search area is amazing to me.
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Noteworthy too is the reportedly steep and very rugged topography of the search area, making this a particularly more challenging and remarkable find than if on the wide abyssal plain. It is amazing.
 
Hopefully they find the black boxes so they can examine what went on in the final moments. I know they have come to a conclusion already, but examining the boxes will give more clues.

Nice to see that families will be able to put closure on this also. Bury their loved ones.
 
Fuzzy14 said:
Not always, and blocked pitot tubes can cause a crash, although hopefully lessons have been applied.
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If anyone is really interested in this crash I would highly suggest watching the documentary on Flight 447. I believe it is entitled Lost: The Mystery of Flight 447. Produced by the BBC. Amazing. Essentially they concluded and surmised that the three pitot tubes supercooled and gave the plane over 30 or so errors.
 
TwoSocEmBoppers said:
If anyone is really interested in this crash I would highly suggest watching the documentary on Flight 447. I believe it is entitled Lost: The Mystery of Flight 447. Produced by the BBC. Amazing. Essentially they concluded and surmised that the three pitot tubes supercooled and gave the plane over 30 or so errors.
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It was a fascinating documentary, they also concluded that even with the issues with the pitot tubes, that those issues alone should not have bought down the aircraft, and that during a simulation of the known events & conditions, that a known and documented procedure involving a combination of engine and flap settings would've prevented any stall and allowed the plane to continue flying until they were clear of the storm and then the crew could've then addressed the computer issues in more favourable conditions.

There's a fascinating thread on this on the Airliners.net website.
 
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