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The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

admiralcloudberg.medium.com

31–40 of 231 posts

Re: The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

#31
post #2

It's kind of amazing how many of these accidents can come down to the pilots forgetting the most basic things. In this case, ultimately, the pilot and the co-pilot were exerting opposite controls. One to pull up, one to push the nose down. In a stall you push the nose down to gain aerodynamic lift. That's like Flying 101. But I guess when you panic, the natural instinct of wanting to pull up kicks in when you're rapi…

Yeah the "insane pilot error" crashes always get me.

American 587 is another example where, in response to normal wake turbulence, the pilot mashed the rudder back and forth so hard it broke the stabilizer.

Re: The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

#32
post #7

Perhaps these pilots were "Children of the Magenta"[1] ? These AA instructional videos by Captain Vanderburgh are fascinating - even to a non-pilot like myself. They are especially relevant as we dip our toes into automobile auto-pilot and the "automation dependency" that comes along with it. Of particular note in this video: @ 12:30: "... tactily connected to the airplane ..." @ 14:15: "... we see automation depende…

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Re: The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

#33

I hate me for watching the news about it on that time. That's the flight that seeing all the details about on television gave me the fear of flying that I have these days, specially when above the ocean. I just can't overcome this.

I suppose you've heard it all, like the fact that there are more than 10000 planes currently in the air and we haven't heard about a plane crash for weeks now. If you go to https://globe.adsbexchange.com and zoom out you can see all the planes around the world, flying safely. I suppose the only way through the fear is to fly and realize at the end that you're fine (although obviously IANAP)

Also note that the last deadly airline crash in the US was all the way back in 2009. We've gone 14 years without a single one, which is a pretty remarkable safety record for the FAA and NTSB.

Re: The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

#35
post #23

I hate me for watching the news about it on that time. That's the flight that seeing all the details about on television gave me the fear of flying that I have these days, specially when above the ocean. I just can't overcome this.

The real scare accident for me is the Helios flight 552: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522 Due to maintenance error, everyone in the plane including the crew black out of hypoxia and crash on the land. There are horrific pictures from the site. What made me not being afraid of flying was to get familiar with the technicalities of the flights, it's less scary the more you understand it.

OP also has an article on Helios 522, for those interested: https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/lost-souls-of-grammatiko...

Re: The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

#36

What an amazing article. I know comments here are meant to be more substantial, but this is truly one of the best written content I've ever come across. My most sincere admiration and thank you notes to the author for putting all of this together in such a great way!

She writes one of these a week, and they’re all very high quality. I highly recommending subscribing. Seeing the new post is always one of the week’s highlights, just like how getting the “Money Stuff” edition is a highlight of every weekday morning (er, early afternoon).

Oh I agree, Money Stuff always puts a smile on my face even before reading it, ha.

Re: The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

#37

> A brief interruption to their airspeed indications, lasting less than a minute, had thrown two trained Air France pilots into a state of paralyzed agitation. I'm generally suspicious of technical solutions to human-factors problems. But I can't help wondering if some combination of voice stress analysis and measuring pilot coordination might be able to produce a warning that would have prompted the flight crew to s…

> But I can't help wondering if some combination of voice stress analysis and measuring pilot coordination might be able to produce a warning that would have prompted the flight crew to see that they had stopped flying in an orderly way. I guess I don't know what you could do with that, flashing another alarm at an already overstressed flight crew seems like it's unlikely to help?

The most likely thing to help in something like this, is for the plane to realize it's going to die, and just take over.

And that has usually been the "airbus way", whereas Boeing has more had a notion of throw things to the pilots often enough so they know what they're doing.

Re: The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

#38
Since I started to study airline accidents, so far this one of the most fascinating in terms of human aspects and Crew Resource Management.

The fact that the whole situation deteriorated less than 10 minutes after the Captain went to rest, it’s one of the biggest contrafactuals about this case.

Re: The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

#39

> A brief interruption to their airspeed indications, lasting less than a minute, had thrown two trained Air France pilots into a state of paralyzed agitation. I'm generally suspicious of technical solutions to human-factors problems. But I can't help wondering if some combination of voice stress analysis and measuring pilot coordination might be able to produce a warning that would have prompted the flight crew to s…

> But I can't help wondering if some combination of voice stress analysis and measuring pilot coordination might be able to produce a warning that would have prompted the flight crew to see that they had stopped flying in an orderly way. I guess I don't know what you could do with that, flashing another alarm at an already overstressed flight crew seems like it's unlikely to help?

I agree with both your points. It's a difficult problem. Forced engagement of the autopilot might possibly have helped the pilots of f447 - but its unlikely to be safe in all situations or be acceptable to flight crews.

Re: The crash of Air France flight 447 (2021)

#40
post #27

Does anyone think lack of sleep is the major contributor of this event, or the invalidation of all three speed sensors? I think we do test pilots for alcohol and drug before a flight, but can we also test them for reaction and a couple of hazard scenarios? Do you think it is too much? About the sensors, is there any inexpensive way to increase the heat or anything to prevent it from happening again?

Every six months we go in the simulator and practice all kinds of failures and disasters. But lack of sleep is a real issue. Even more on the US side since rest rules are worse than European. Somehow it doesn't get the attention it deserves.

> But lack of sleep is a real issue. Even more on the US side since rest rules are worse than European. Somehow it doesn't get the attention it deserves.

IMO this is almost a cultural issue. We don't prioritize sleep as much as we should and even hold lack of sleep as something to be idolized (i.e. sleep = laziness). How many times do we hear about those CEOs or Founders that wake up super early after only 5 hours of sleep. They're driven, they're hungry, they have something you don't. You're just lazy.

Everyone "knows" we need more sleep just like we know we should floss every day but we have better things to do.

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