Members musicdog400 Posted June 4, 2009 Members Share Posted June 4, 2009 I am surprised how reliable planes are. Lots of complex systems, and it gets extremely expensive and sometimes maybe even impossible to consider all of the possible states and scenarios of the system. It doesn't help that my last job had a lot of ex-Boeing guys. All of them had a couple of stories. So much happens with software now, and medical and avionics are exceptions in the software world. Most companies don't want to use formal development methods that increase reliability. The software culture for most of the world is if it seems to work ok on a couple of quick tests, ship it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zozobra Posted June 4, 2009 Members Share Posted June 4, 2009 From what I can gather it was too cold for the plane to ice up by a good margin (no chance of supercooled water at that temperature, see koop et al. 2000) and I doubt that there would be sufficiently large ice to take it down. Could just have been turbulence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tetaJ Posted June 4, 2009 Members Share Posted June 4, 2009 There's humor in everything. It just takes a particular type of person to identify it. I hope when their mothers die they come in here and joke about it too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SirJackdeFuzz Posted June 4, 2009 Members Share Posted June 4, 2009 At 30Kft you have a good 45 minutes of glide time before hitting the hard stuff so something went very very wrong. CORRECT ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SirJackdeFuzz Posted June 4, 2009 Members Share Posted June 4, 2009 Maybe in a Cessna... They probably impacted the surface at 400 knots or so. If that's the case there aren't any bodies left. NO, it's true . . . a plane like this Airbus does have a 40-45 min glide time from that alt ! That is IF there is nothing else wrong, except for the loss of engine power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Markdude Posted June 4, 2009 Members Share Posted June 4, 2009 NO, it's true . . . a plane like this Airbus does have a 40-45 min glide time from that alt ! That is IF there is nothing else wrong, except for the loss of engine power. Exactly; if there is nothing else wrong. Like I said earlier, they were flying through an intense thunderstorm, which means lots and lots of turbulence. I wouldn't bet on them being in controlled and level flight, losing power/running out of fuel, and gliding to the surface at the optimal AOA. Let's be realistic here. :poke: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members silverfacechamp Posted June 4, 2009 Members Share Posted June 4, 2009 The aircraft's computer system did send about four minutes of automated messages indicating a loss of cabin pressure and an electrical failure, officials have said. There have been more detailed reports about the messages sent in other periodicals. Look it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Real MC Posted June 4, 2009 Members Share Posted June 4, 2009 don't bodies float in salt water? Not necessarily. After the Titanic disaster a fleet of ships were dispatched to recover bodies. Of the 1500 casualties, only a few hundred were recovered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jaytee123 Posted June 4, 2009 Members Share Posted June 4, 2009 GPS is not bidirectional. Even if they had their cell phones on, the only people that would know where they were using GPS would be the people holding the phone. You could triangulate their coordinates (accurate to within a certain area) using cell towers but there are no cell towers in the middle of the atlantic (at least, as far as I know) My bad. That's what I get for not owning a cellphone...or a GPS. EDIT: I looked it up. Bi-directional GPS is available in cell phones BTW, though I don't know many people who have it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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