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Working Theory In Jet Crash: IPhone In Cockpit Is To Blame (appleinsider.com)
Apple Insider reports:
Apple on Friday said that it's open to cooperation with French authorities, who are exploring the possibility that two of the company's devices were linked to the crash of EgyptAir Flight 804 in 2016. The flight's first officer may have plugged an iPhone 6s and an iPad mini 4 into the wrong socket in the jet's cockpit, French officials told Le Parisien. That may have triggered runaway heat, in turn sparking a fire.
At the moment, the investigation is being helped by an engineer from the French National Center for Scientific Research, as well as two people fron the French defense ministry, including a physics professor and an engineer specializing in batteries. Results from the investigation should be submitted by Sept. 30. Apple told the Parisien that it wasn't aware of evidence linking its devices to the EgyptAir disaster.
At the moment, the investigation is being helped by an engineer from the French National Center for Scientific Research, as well as two people fron the French defense ministry, including a physics professor and an engineer specializing in batteries. Results from the investigation should be submitted by Sept. 30. Apple told the Parisien that it wasn't aware of evidence linking its devices to the EgyptAir disaster.
The linked article doesn't make it clear whether it was the iDevices that overheated from being plugged into the wrong socket, or whether they overloaded or shorted out the socket. A fire behind an instrument cluster panel would be slower to detect, and harder to put out.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
Was the pilot texting while flying again?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Apple Ink.s User License Agreement is now in play to pin Apple and Timmy Cook for murder.
The reason is that the User License Agreement on all Apple products does NOT transfer ownership of the device to the purchaser! The License is a USE License, and therefore ownership is retained by Apple!
So, if the fire started with the iPhone + iPad, Apple Ink. and Timmy Cook have full responsibility for all loss of life and property!
It may be 10 to 18 months before the arrest and extradition orders are cut to get Timmy to face all the charges in French court.
I don't know if this is the case in the Airbus A320, but in smaller aircraft (including GA airplanes) there often is a power port that looks like the cigarette lighter port in many cars. They easily fit USB car chargers such as this one. (For years I used an earlier generation of this very adapter in a Cessna 172 to power my iPad.)
The problem is, unlike in a car where the power port is always around 12-14 volts, the voltage in aircraft has (to the best of my knowledge) never been standardized. I've heard of airplanes which pump out up to 28 volts (instead of 12-14 volts), which is why if you are not certain of the airplane you're flying in, you need a specialized adapter such as this one.
Since so many aircraft have power ports at 12 volts, many pilots I know simply buy a car power adapter. But if you plug it into a 24 volt power port (and the ports are often unmarked: the only way to tell is to crack open the airplane's POH), you're going to have a bad time.
Even though this is a French investigation, Egypt Air has a history of applying pressure to investigators to find reasons for a crash other than pilot action.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_990
So this is a USB type socket. Are they using USB sockets but for different purposes, such as mains power?
If you plugged your 120v toaster into a 220v socket is the toaster to blame or the human?
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
Was probably a muslim.
Crappy /. editing here. The summary said that the devices may be linked to the crash and the article implies that they may have caused a fire which caused the crash. Neither of these statements place blame,
A simple analogy, if you have a car crash because you were texting, the texting is the cause, but you are to blame.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
The original reporting was this article in Le Parisien: Crash d'EgyptAir : des experts se penchent sur des iPhone et des iPad
The article is in French, so you'll have to use Google Translate, but it is worth reading -- it has details and graphics that are not in the Apple Insider report.
The reason is that the User License Agreement on all Apple products does NOT transfer ownership of the device to the purchaser! The License is a USE License, and therefore ownership is retained by Apple!
So since the pilot plainly broke the devices through misuse, his survivors owe Apple an iPhone.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Imagine, Ives said "Lets make the phone 4mm thicker for a bigger battery." Now the battery easily lasts 2 days, and maybe the pilots wouldn't be charging their devices
It's entirely plausible the battery or other parts had been replaced at some point. It would be completely unfair to blame apple for a fire in a non-apple battery or a non-apple charger. I wish they would give this information as it is very pertinent on how to interpret this.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Fuck Apple. There, I said it.
apple will deny all responsibility. Its kind of suspicious all ready that they are even talking to the French.
and wouldn't suspect sabotage if it bit them in the ass. Or if it takes down an unusual amount of planes in a given timeframe. If the corrupt NSA/CIA wants to take a plane down, they most likely have a way in to do that. Or if Airbus is taking too much market segment, then you can bring down a couple of them, and make airlines buy the Dreamliner instead.
Bah. Could have.
Hard to imagine a plausible sequence of events in which a USB-powered device charging would cause a rapid conflagration in the avionics bay. Most speculation to date has been looking to the windscreen heater circuit as a source of rapid heat due to high current availability at the location in question. There have been many previous incidents and close calls with these windscreen heater circuits and control units.
Apple is simply too brave to bother making phones which will not explode when charged in an aircraft cockpit power port.
FWIW I think Airbus does have high voltage DC ports, but I htink it is also a non-standard jack, just like you need an adapter to use your aviation headset on an Airbus flight deck.
> French officials told Le Parisien. That may have triggered runaway heat, in turn sparking a fire.
Which means it's an avionics panel design flaw and had absolutely nothing to do with Apple. The panel should be properly fused and/or current limited to prevent a thermal runaway issue. That fact they were apple products is completely arbitrary. Especially since the USB/device standards require they communicate their approximate current demands.
Unless they are arguing the devices were completely broken and ignored industry standards, which they are not, it has absolutely nothing to do with Apple or iphones or tablets and everything to do with avionics panel design idiocy. The plane/avionics manufacturer are completely at fault.
3 experts (an engineer from the French national research center; a solid physics PhD and an engineer specialised in batteries, both from the minister of the Army) have received a mission from the juges in charge of the investigation. They'll buy 3 iPad Mini WiFi 3G A 1455 and 3 iPhone 6S, both new and second-hand, provoke an over-heating and check out if the devices can start a fire, then they'll put them on fire if they must (wording's a bit unclear), compute (sic) the radiated heat and analyze the fumes and deposits. All that will be filmed. Can the devices catch on fire spontaneously? On what conditions, how fast, could this make the plane uncontrollable and/or asphyxiate the pilots? Their report is to be delivered before september 30th.
The Apple products were spotted on cameras as the plane was parked, and also at the crew security check in. An undisclosed source close to the investigation says a really cool sentence: "The equation of this tragedy is maybe to be found in the plugging of these devices between the current delivered by the plugs behind the copilot and the reception of this current by devices with lithium batteries." If this made sense, then sorry, I mistranslated.
Apple said they weren't contacted by any authority investigating the tragedy, didn't have access to any document, but their understanding is that there's no proof Apple products is involved. They'll be happy to oblige if they can help and all their products are rigorously tested and meet and go beyond international safety standards.
The boxed text below is about batteries and regulations. All devices are forbidden in the cockpit, except for those specially provided by the airline. Some european airlines just ban lithum batteries from the cockpit. Another undisclosed source in the know states that cockpit plugs are not for grilling bread or brewing coffee: they are professional usage plugs. (I kind of understand why journalists don't disclose their sources.)
tl;dr Lots of words for little information. The best three experts they could think of at somehow crashing a plane with an overheating Apple device were just sent on a mission to report if they could do it and how. They have one iPad and one iPhone per person and 4 months. No free phones for them though: all devices must burn and they must provide evidence for that on film.
... more like "pilot who overloaded power point in aircraft" is to blame, but that's not anti-apple enough for slashdot. This is what fuses are for? If the aircraft simply burned out its wiring harness and started a fire, that's an aircraft failure, not Apple's fault.
[Actual A320 pilot posting this]
Depending on the age of the aircraft there are three sockets in the flight deck (OK, 4, but one is 28v). One per pilot supplies 110v/60Hz, and one supplies 115v/400Hz directly from the aircraft electrical network. Their use is permitted at all times (although some airlines state that things should be disconnected at critical times).
The pilot sockets are by the knee and easily used. The maintenance socket is permitted for ground use as switching power supplies don't care about the frequency. It shouldn't be used in the air, mainly because you'd need a really long cable.
When I plug things into the wrong hole, overheating often is the result.
"The copilot just plugged in his iPhone into the wrong socket. We're all gonna die."