SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum
GLD 421.66-0.1%Jan 13 4:00 PM EST
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (148094)4/28/2019 3:05:38 PM
From: Elroy Jetson1 Recommendation

Recommended By
elmatador

  Read Replies (1) of 219322
 
One of the problems with the Air France 447 is all of the A330 flight controls are limited by "the flight envelope", what you can do with the plane with it's current weight, altitude, speed and temperature.

Yaw too far too fast and under "Flight Law" and the A330 responds with a slow mild move nothing like the spastic gesture you've just made with the hand control side-stick.

But if the flight computers disengage or reboot, "Alternate Flight Law" goes into effect just as you prefer.
.

The quick hand movement you're accustomed to making to bank the plane will now send the aircraft into a steep roll and dive as co-pilot Pierre-Cedric Bonin discovered.

Every little movement you make is put into instant effect without any muscular effort even though it can cause the plane to crash or breakup in midair.

Under "Normal Flight Law" Bonin could not have stalled the jet for 15 minutes until it hit the ocean. Flight Law aka Flght Envelope Control is "one of those bad things" like MCAS.

But once the series of faults left him with "Alternate Flight Law" he was free to stall the aircraft onto the ocean just as his hand control pitched at 35 to 40 degrees made the aircraft pitch the exactly the same. The recorded called out "Stall Stall" 72 times before the crash.

This is the list of mistakes the investigators laid at the pilot's feet.
  • The pilots had not applied the unreliable-airspeed procedure.
  • The pilot-in-control pulled back on the stick, thus increasing the angle of attack and causing the aircraft to climb rapidly.
  • The pilots apparently did not notice that the aircraft had reached its maximum permissible altitude.
  • The pilots did not read out the available data (vertical velocity, altitude, etc.).
  • The stall warning sounded continuously for 54 seconds.
  • The pilots did not comment on the stall warnings and apparently did not realize that the aircraft was stalled.
  • There was some buffeting associated with the stall.
  • The stall warning deactivates by design when the angle of attack measurements are considered invalid, and this is the case when the airspeed drops below a certain limit.
  • In consequence, the stall warning came on whenever the pilot pushed forward on the stick and then stopped when he pulled back; this happened several times during the stall and this may have confused the pilots.
  • Despite the fact that they were aware that altitude was declining rapidly, the pilots were unable to determine which instruments to trust: it may have appeared to them that all values were incoherent.
But you could say Airbus engineers were to blame for making Bonin accustomed to the flight computers implementing different action than what he called for with his side stick and throttle.
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2026 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News