AF447 broke up mid-air

[Zippy]

No don't get your coat - I think it's a male, testosterone thing to be interested in disasters. I think the only reason I watch motorsport is for the crashes, which is why F1s got so boring of late!

Oh dear. I'm going to have to grow a pair then. I will GMC

[Menelaus]

Oh dear. I'm going to have to grow a pair then. I will GMC

Worry thee not - as a female you have testosterone too

[FSM with Cheddar]

So why doesn't this happen all the time? Or do they normally just avoid such storms, and if so why didn't they avoid this one?

They always try to avoid storms. I remember seeing a radar video a little while ago on youtube showing the path of aircraft over the Atlantic, they all weave round storms.

[oracleslave]

Worry thee not - as a female you have testosterone too

Reminded me of this classic!

On the subject of drugs in tennis, the Williams sisters were recently
discussing this in the warm-up room before a doubles match.

"I think Dad might be slipping us steroids" whispered Serena.
"What makes you say that?" replied a stunned Venus.
"Well" , started Serena embarrassingly, "I've started to grow hair on
parts of my body that have never had hair before!".
" ****....like where?" asked Venus.
" Like all over my balls!" replied Serena

[Zippy]

Reminded me of this classic!

On the subject of drugs in tennis, the Williams sisters were recently
discussing this in the warm-up room before a doubles match.

"I think Dad might be slipping us steroids" whispered Serena.
"What makes you say that?" replied a stunned Venus.
"Well" , started Serena embarrassingly, "I've started to grow hair on
parts of my body that have never had hair before!".
" ****....like where?" asked Venus.
" Like all over my balls!" replied Serena

I really don't want hairy balls I just want to understand what happened

[Menelaus]

Reminded me of this classic!

On the subject of drugs in tennis, the Williams sisters were recently
discussing this in the warm-up room before a doubles match.

"I think Dad might be slipping us steroids" whispered Serena.
"What makes you say that?" replied a stunned Venus.
"Well" , started Serena embarrassingly, "I've started to grow hair on
parts of my body that have never had hair before!".
" ****....like where?" asked Venus.
" Like all over my balls!" replied Serena

[PM-Junkie]

A bit sketchy but

hmmmm...remind me again what hefty chunks of the new A380 is made of?

[Menelaus]

hmmmm...remind me again what hefty chunks of the new A380 is made of?

Oops.

I'd imagine in Toulouse there are a series of lawyers and other associated scumballs (sorry, don't like lawyers) trying to work out how Airbus Industrie can wriggle out of taking it up the tulipter for this one.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Originally Posted by Zippy
Seriously though, wouldn't a failure like that most likely be a bomb? I know the Airbus planes are all fly by wire so if the computer systems go down the pilots have no means of control (the cockpit looks like the space shuttle).

Doesn't necessarily prove or disprove a bomb. Planes have gone down due to structural faliure before. The computer systems on Airbuses have multiple redundancy.

You might wish to consider the case of the DC10 in France in 1974 - the cargo door blew off causing explosive decompression and which caused the rear floor to collapse and the No2 (middle) engine to flame out - all the "old fashioned" controls were lost as the cables and hydraulic lines were all severed - so it can happen to traditionally controlled planes too - from that point the pilots were basically passengers with zero control. (If you are really interested in why tulip happens, there's an excellent book on the DC10 called the rise and fall of the DC10).

There is a considerable sub text to any time an airliner goes down - some people (septics mostly) are keen to imply that Airbus planes are shoddy because they are designed and made in Europe and Boeing stuff is superior. There isn't much real evidence to support this but it is popular. In fact Boeing adopted fly by wire for the 777 and all modern planes are becoming like cars with a central network controling the majority of systems by digital signals.

STOP PRESS - A poor pilot on an Continental (edit) plane flying from Brussels to Newark NJ has apparently just died "in service" - on the flight deck - oh and I've just seen a BAC 1-11 flying - I haven't seen one of those in the air for > 20 years.

[Menelaus]

Originally Posted by Zippy
Seriously though, wouldn't a failure like that most likely be a bomb? I know the Airbus planes are all fly by wire so if the computer systems go down the pilots have no means of control (the cockpit looks like the space shuttle).

Doesn't necessarily prove or disprove a bomb. Planes have gone down due to structural faliure before. The computer systems on Airbuses have multiple redundancy.

You might wish to consider the case of the DC10 in France in 1974 - the cargo door blew off causing explosive decompression and which caused the rear floor to collapse and the No2 (middle) engine to flame out - all the "old fashioned" controls were lost as the cables and hydraulic lines were all severed - so it can happen to traditionally controlled planes too - from that point the pilots were basically passengers with zero control. (If you are really interested in why tulip happens, there's an excellent book on the DC10 called the rise and fall of the DC10).

There is a considerable sub text to any time an airliner goes down - some people (septics mostly) are keen to imply that Airbus planes are shoddy because they are designed and made in Europe and Boeing stuff is superior. There isn't much real evidence to support this but it is popular. In fact Boeing adopted fly by wire for the 777 and all modern planes are becoming like cars with a central network controling the majority of systems by digital signals.

STOP PRESS - A poor pilot on an American Airlines plane flying from Brussels to Newark NJ has apparently just died "in service" - on the flight deck - oh and I've just seen a BAC 1-11 flying - I haven't seen one of those in the air for > 20 years.

viz the STOP PRESS, wasn't there a case where an Air Canada(?) pilot went mental on the flight deck on a flight from Toronto to Heathrow and they had to put down in Shannon to get him off the 'plane?