Germanwings plane black box found as mystery surrounds Alps crash

[brooklynite]

Source: The Guardian

French air investigators are urgently examining a black box cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from a Germanwings Airbus A-320 to try to solve the mystery of why the aircraft crashed into a mountain in the southern Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

Investigators are puzzled as to why the crew did not send out a mayday or distress signal as flight U49525 rapidly lost altitude for eight minutes, or why the pilot did not change course to avoid smashing into a rocky ravine at around 430mph (700kmh).

In the last 10 minutes of the flight there was total radio silence from the crew of the Barcelona–Düsseldorf flight operated by Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary.

Tuesday’s crash happened around 11am local time in calm weather. Unverified information from plane-tracking websites appeared to rule out an explosion or a mid-air stall, both of which would cause a much faster descent. Experts said planes such as the Airbus would be able to glide for some distance in the case of total engine failure.



Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/24/germanwings-plane-black-box-found-as-investigators-reach-crash-site

[No Vested Interest]

1. I notice there has been no on-air spoken speculation of a hijacking;

the complete lack of this mention, given the many tensions in Europe at this time, speaks volumes in and of itself.

While we all hope that a hijacking did not occur, that thought is at least as valid as some of the other possibilities for the cause now being offered.

[cosmicone]

2. Yes - it should always be considered as a possible explanation

especially with all the terrorists rampant in Europe.

[Yo_Mama]

3. Yes, but everything's speculation right now.

Not a pleasant time for authorities, flight crews or passengers, to be sure.

Although I don't see how it's possible, some sort of catastrophic control failure could conceivably have prevented communication.

[Xithras]

12. A slow and steady descent seems like an odd hijacking result.

If a hijacker seized a plane with the intent of taking hostages or crashing into a building, we'd have seen a more erratic flight path. If a hijacker merely intended to crash the plane, it seems like they'd have gone nose down and dove the plane, rather than slowly dropping the altitude over many minutes (giving the passengers more time to revolt).

While it certainly might be a hijacking, the profile of the crash doesn't seem consistent with what we would expect to see.

[No Vested Interest]

13. I'm envisioning the pilot still at the airplane controls, with an armed hijacker

giving orders.

It would be better for us all if it was not so.
Europe has many scary scenarios playing out, making it harder to carry on normal business and living conditions without fear.
Imagine how the school-mates and families of those 16 or so students who were lost will be affected long-term.

[Xithras]

14. I can't imagine a pilot complying with an order to fly into a mountain.

Even if there is a gun to your head, the mountain is going to kill you anyway. The hijacker in that scenario would have basically been ordering the pilot to commit suicide. In that situation, your core animal instincts are going to tell you to fight back just for the slim chance that you might find a way to survive it.

[No Vested Interest]

15. Okay. We'll have answers soon enough from black box(es.) nt

[global1]

4. Could They Have Had An Oxygen Problem And Blacked Out?.....nt

[Yo_Mama]

5. Pilots have been speculating on that.

Cockpits have air supplies, so the question is whether something could have interfered with the normal procedure.

[EX500rider]

6. The pilots missed the warnings somehow on Helios Flight522...

....so it's possible it happened again..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522

[Yo_Mama]

8. Yes, but see the next post.

I don't know the facts, but some have said that it looks like it was a guided descent and that there was some endeavor to change course at a lower elevation. I don't know whether this is true.

If the engines were out, you might see something along those lines - a controlled descent, but there are backup power supplies so that they still should have had communications!! That's what's freaking everyone out - that nothing was heard.

[No Vested Interest]

7. The fact that the descent was "controlled" - i.e., not a free fall

which would accelerate the further it fell and got closer to earth, would indicate that either it had been set for that speed on automatic pilot, or that a person was controlling the descent speed.

Also, it seems there was no communication from the pilot in the 8- 10 minutes before the crash.

[PoliticAverse]

9. Or that the computer got confused due to a sensor problem and caused a rapid descent

which has happened on an Airbus A321 before, see:
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/558483-iced-aoa-sensors-send-a321-into-deep-dive.html

[No Vested Interest]

10. It's my understanding that the plane descended at a steady 400mph,

and under normal conditions would have leveled off at 10,00 ft, but, in this case, did not, and crashed at ca 6800 ft.

[Yo_Mama]

11. Maybe this will mean something more to others than to me

This is info on the flight. You see a heading change, and shortly thereafter the plane starts to lose altitude.

[No Vested Interest]

16. Where did you find that info? nt

[brooklynite]

17. Here's the flight track...

looks like a slight adjustment in keeping with it's route to Dusseldorf.

[James48]

18. Can you point me to where that came from?

That ends at point 53 and 37925 feet altitude. You should have a lot more data points.

the only one that sticks out as odd is point number 30, which is showing a huge climb for one radar pass (+14,144 feet per minute climb) in one scan of the radar. Probably just an anomaly- but it is odd.

Everything else is very routine here.

I'd like to see the descent datapoints. Where did you get that?

Thanks

[James48]

19. found it

flightaware has a good discussion going, and more flight data.

http://flightaware.com/squawks/view/1/today/popular/47468/Germanwings_plane_crashes_in_southern_France?media_id=1&media=1&vote_type=1