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Flight 447 'Black Box' Decoded

Posted by timothy on from the impressive-feats-come-in-waves dept.

fermion writes "An initial report has been released by the BEA concerning the details of the last minutes of Flight 447 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. According the report, the autopilot disengaged and stall warning engaged at 2 hours 10 minutes and 5 seconds into the flight. Less than 2 minutes later the recorded speeds became invalid. At 2 hours 14 minutes and 28 seconds, the recording stopped. The final vertical speed was recorded around 10,912 ft/min."

5 of 449 comments (clear)

  1. Umm, no... by Maury+Markowitz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    “So, we think that until impact they did not realize the situation, which for the family is what they want to hear — they did not suffer.”

    A three minute decent at 10,000 ft/min over the middle of the ocean?

    I'm pretty sure everyone onboard knew exactly how that was going to end about half way in.

    1. Re:Umm, no... by jshackney · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think you know any pilots because if you did, you'd know that this little trick doesn't work. [citation] rthille is correct.

  2. Re:So much new and yet nothing new by OverlordQ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Surely, a species with such (magical?) technical expertise could have expended the effort into preventing such a failure?

    There is, it's called heated pitot tubes, and the FAA requires them for US carriers.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  3. Re:Airbus by vgerclover · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I trust software more and more in the long run. And I m not a geek!!

    That's why.

  4. Re:Good thread with an Airbus pilot and some exper by Carewolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    additionally, there would be NO functional indicators for alt, speed, horizon, etc. Once the computers have faulted, they no longer share that information.

    Alt. must have worked it is recorded correctly by the black box, I see no reason to believe horizon shouldn't have been working, so only visual and speed was impaired. That is still a difficult situation, so no reason to exaggerate it.