According to CNN.com
“The crash was at least the fifth major airline accident in the world this year, following crashes of planes flown by Colgan Air, Turkish Airlines, Air France and Yemenia Airways. A US Airways pilot managed to land his plane safely on the Hudson river in New York City in January, with no major injuries, after the plane lost power.
But aviation safety expert John Wiley said there is no reason to fear air travel in general, and no single airline or aircraft is particularly dangerous.”
The race is on for searchers to locate the black boxes from Air France flight 447, as their locator beacons are only active for 30 days. However, preliminary evidence has been released by the airline which shows that, in the minutes leading up to the crash, two key computers malfunctioned and the plane was not flying at its ideal speed.
The data provides a chronology, albeit cryptic, of what happened in the minutes before the plane’s failure.
3am (BST) – The pilot reports hitting tropical turbulence, data says the plane had passed through “tall, dense cumulonimbus thunderclouds.”
Apparently at this stage, the plane’s speed was “erroneous.” Every plane has an ideal speed at which to travel through difficult weather, and AF 447 was not traveling at that speed – it is unknown at this point, however, if the plane was traveling too fast or too slowly.
3:10am – Pilot is presented with a series of error messages in the four minutes leading up to the disaster.
The auto-pilot system was disconnected, either by the pilot or automatically. (Auto-pilot shut down when the system is faced with a serious error.)
It is possible the pilot disconnected the system to try to manually avoid a dangerous cloud zone – at this high altitude, this maneuver is extremely dangerous.
At this same time, another emergency backup system switched on – this system allows the plane to keep flying using minimum power, but reduces stability.
3:12am – Two vital computers, which provide information on altitude, speed and flight direction, stopping working correctly.
3:13am – Electricity breakdowns in two principal and auxiliary flight computers.
3:14am – Final message: “cabin in vertical speed,” which suggests a sudden loss of cabin pressure. It is unclear whether this loss of pressure was because the plane broke apart in midair, or if the loss of pressure caused the plane to break apart. (The theory that the break broke apart in the air is lent credence by a Spanish pilot who was in the area who claims to have seen an “intense white flash” in the air.)
Sources close to the investigation argue that some of the details in the chronology are false, namely the fact that the computers providing info on altitude, etc, malfunctioned.
Searchers are continuing to scour the area for debris, and more information on what happened. Read more…
Ryanair, an Irish no-frills airline, has decided that bathrooms are an option some people can go without. They are considering making customers pay to use toilets aboard their planes. The company’s boss, Michael O’Leary, claims he doesn’t “think there’s anybody in history gone on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound,” he said - so asking for a pound to pee is therefore no big deal. Read more…
Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Group, got his ass handed to him in a tongue-in-cheek customer complaint letter from a passenger on his airline. The passenger had been served “food” (pictured above) and, well, did not enjoy it. Here’s the first bit:
Dear Mr Branson
REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008
I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.
Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at thehands of your corporation.
Look at this Richard. Just look at it: [see image 1, above].
I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?
Until the end of November, Alitalia will be cutting 100 flights a day because of strikes by pilots and flight attendants. The end of the month is when the deal for the sale of the airline is expected to close. Read more…
American Airlines is the only top-10 airline who posted a net profit in the third quarter. Read more…
The terrorist watch lists have far fewer names on them than previously thought. In some estimates, over one million names made the lists. However, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff has admitted there are, in fact, 2,500 names on the “no-fly” list. However, many more people can and have been inconvenienced by the existence of a “no-fly” list because their names are the same or similar to names on that list. The government has introduced a new program to combat this inconvenience, called Secure Flight. This program will have people give their full name, date of birth and gender when making airlines reservations. This information will then be run against the watch lists. Read more…
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