Air France plane with 228 people vanishes

[Straybow]

The BLOOP got 'em!

[The Mad Monk]

A post on another forum from someone actually in the business:

OK, a bit more information has come to light. One of the French TV stations has obtained, and broadcast, the list of messages that the ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) sent out before the flight was (presumanly) lost. Here's a copy of it, from another forum:



Now, here's where I earn my pay as "resident expert" - although I'm not familiar with the Airbus systems in detail. I'm also using info gleaned elsewhere to fill out the gaps in my knowledge, of course.

The columns in the data are:

1. ATA Code & Part Identifier
2. Message Type
3. Date and Time
4. Actual message - numeric code and english text
5. Date
6. Flight #


ATA code - a two digit code which identifies the general system affected. The ones of interest here are:
21 Air conditioning
22 Auto flight
27 Flight controls
34 Navigation

Note that there is NO ATA 24 - which is the electrical one. Starting to look like no electrical systems were lost (or at least, none reported as lost)

Message Type : FLR is a Fault Report WRN is a warning that would have been displayed to the crew. (So FLR are things the crew wouldnt have warnings for)

Date and Time - Note that the first message is at the BOTTOM of the page

Message Codes - I'll get to those

Date - straightforward

Flight - Note that the first two messages (bottom of first set) are AF444 and thus not the accident aircraft.

Ok, to the messages. I'm going to group them by time. Note that we don't know the order they actually occurred in - ACARS reporting order my be random for simultaneously reported events. So each group could be shuffled. But 0210Z is before 0211Z at least.

0210Z
We have 14 total messages. 2 fault reports, and 12 warnings. That would have lit the cockpit up like a christmas tree.
The two faults are ATA 34 EFCS2 and ATA 27 for EFCS1. EFCS is the Electronic Flight Control System.
The warnings include AUTO FLT AP OFF and AUTO FLT A/THR OFF. Those indicate that the automatic pilot and autothrottle were both off - due to failures, not crew action. The F/CTL ALTN LAW message indicates that the fly-by-wire system has dropped into the secondary "Alternate Law" where the full protection of the "Normal" Law isn't available. One consequence is that you can stall inAlternate Law - Normal Law prevents stalling. The various FLAG ON PFD messages indicate the precence of warning "flags" on the "Primary Flight Displays". The F/CTL RUD TRV LIM FAULT one indicates that the "rudder travel limiter" has a fault. (It's used to prevent pilots applying too much rudder at high speeds) NAV TCAS FAULT refers to the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (which is used to warn of other aircraft).

So, what's going on? What it looks like is that the aircraft Air Data and Inertial reference Units - and especially the Air Data part, which is the box that calculates the airspeed and altitude - were failing. Loss of accurate and consistent data from the three ADIRUs forces other systems to revert to simpler modes of operation. hence Alternate Law, and the automatics dropping offline. TCAS needs to know your altitude to avoid other aircraft. The Rudder Limiter needs airspeed to know where to set the limits. Its also possible that angle-of-attack information was being lost too.
Layman's terms: At 2:10 GMT, the aircraft quite suddenly lost a significant amount of the data necessary to fly it safely - almost certainly airspeed and altitude information. The crew would have been presented with conflicting information between the pilot and co-pilot, and won't have known what was correct. At the same time there's a dozen warnings lighted up, a bunch of bells and horns sounding, and suddenly the automatics have handed control back to them.
At dead of night, in a a massive thunderstorm.

0211Z
5 more messages. All ATA 34 - Navigation. Another two Flag messages, which dont tell me much (but the detail info will to the Airbus guys). NAV ADR DISAGREE - This means that of the three ADIRUs, not only has one been lost, but the other two disagree so much that the systems relying on them now have no idea what to use. This locks in Alternate Law, as well. ISIS refers to the Integrated Standby Instrument System. That's the backup, completely independent, system used to provide airspeed and attitude information if the main data systems fail. Well, now it's got problems as well. IR2 is part of the inertial reference system.

Layman's terms.
Less than 60 seconds later, not only have the crew got confusing indications on the main system, but the standby - which you'd turn to first to find out which of the main systems was still trustworthy - just went tits up. At this point the crew have, in effect, lost all reliable indications of airspeed. They are now flying the aircraft - at least in terms of flying the correct speeds - literally by the seat of their pants.

0213Z
"only" two messages. F/CTL SEC 1 FAULT and F/CTL PRIM 1 FAULT refer to faults in the SECondary and PRIMary flight control computers. Its conceivable they might have been dropped now out of Alternate Law and into 'Direct" Law where there is NO system protection for the crew. They may even have been forced into some kind of reversionary mode, with actually no control over the main controls. (Though I think not).

Layman's terms:
Now, in addition to unreliable indications, the control systems (perhaps due to the same unreliable airspeed info) are also starting to shut down. It's getting pregressively harder to fly the aircraft.

0214Z
Three messages. Our first and only ATA21 - Air Conditioning - message. This is likely to be the source of reports of "cabin pressure warnings" that have been mentioned - with access to the manuals you could decode to the specific fault. Likely means that the cabin was depressurizing. The ATA 34 message is actually, I'm told, also related to the cobin conditions. The ATAT 22 one I don't know.

Layman's terms.
There's really only one way to generate these kinds of messages that I can think of - the airframe had started to break up under load and the cabin explosively decompressed. (Note that "explosive" here means "fast", and is nothing to do with a bomb)

So, my previous scenario was largely off base.

This looks like a case of loss of the significant flight instruments - likely due to the storm - perhaps ice or hail damage to the probes, or maybe a lightning strike or two as well - and then the crew either stalled or had an overspeed due to the turbulence in the storm and not really knowing their speed, which caused the aircraft to break apart as it departed controlled flight in extreme conditions.

Nasty.

It's a private forum, so no linky.

[Wiglaf]

That is absurd. I am no expert but come on. Even without airspeed indicators, you can tell the airspeed. I do it all the time in my car. What you do is pick a static object (or in this case, a cloud) and count how long it takes you to pass it. If it takes around 20 seconds then you are going 20 mph, so in this case it'd probably go by in about half a second and they could say, hey, we are going 210 mph, let's speed up.

[Ben Kenobi]

What would he use as a reference point?

Out in the middle of the ocean there would be nothing at all.

[BlackCat]

This is the true reason why the plane crashed - evil Serb

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/unusual-attitude/2009/06/af447-accident---icing-pitot-t.html

By PJR Michel on June 6, 2009 12:04 PM

Unfortunately, AF447 was tracked down by a military laser system which was ignited from sea level.

Pravda.ru describes new laser technologies that the Russian army is capable to put in action. They claim they can instantaneously destroy any sort of enemy aircraft caped into their beam system.

Russian satellites supply the tracking system with target information.
Then the beams creates a plasma lens just ahead of the target. It looks like a very bright clouds of lights and thunder. In that case during 4 mns the tracking system disconnects the power from equipment inside the target so that the target cannot maneuver out of the clouds.

When the aircraft hurt the plasma, the speed fall immediately to zero. Then it falls into the hot 2500 oC depression. that causes A330 to be seen during 6 sec as a falling burning flash. During that time 75 tons of material are volatilized into gas.

It is impossible to find any debris. The people are all buried in the heat.

France has recently deployed a new maritime military hub with nuclear capabilities that challenges Iran naval force and air force. Russian and Iran share the same economic area and the monetary system.

Typically Iran is thought to have bought from Russia most of the advanced arms. It is a terrorist act.

Yours faithfully

[BeBMan]

I think they were abducted by space aliens. It's the most plausible explanation. Remember the movie Independance Day, that's how it starts

[Winston]

If only we could ask Lancer what he thinks.

[SlowwHand]

2 bodies, ticket found near Air France crash site

03:54 PM CDT on Saturday, June 6, 2009

They were getting conflicting air speed indications, which may have caused the auto pilot to be shut off. Whether by the pilot or automatically isn't certain.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa090606_lj_apairfrance.552a7d0a.html

[SlowwHand]

When it's your time, it's your time.

Woman who missed doomed Air France flight is killed in car crash

03:10 PM CDT on Thursday, June 11, 2009

An Italian woman who arrived late for the Air France plane flight that crashed in the Atlantic last week has been killed in a car accident, according to media reports.

Johanna Ganthaler, a pensioner from Bolzano-Bozen province, had been on holiday in Brazil with her husband Kurt and missed Air France Flight 447 after turning up late at Rio de Janeiro airport on May 31.

All 228 people aboard lost their lives after the plane crashed into the Atlantic four hours into its flight to Paris.

The ANSA news agency said the couple had managed to get a flight from Rio the following day.

It reported that Ms Ganthaler died when their car veered across a road in Kufstein, Austria, and swerved into an oncoming truck. Her husband was seriously injured.

[Dis]

that's ****ing freaky. What are the odds of that?

[Asher]

It's inevitable. Have you not seen Final Destination?

[BlackCat]

Life is dangerous - wonder when someone demands that it should be forbidden

Seriously, it sucks a bit - being happy for not being killed and expecting many more years together and then just a little slip on the road.

[SlowwHand]

Evidently in that brief time, her purpose was completed, whatever it might have been.
Yes, freaky.