Oh Dear - Missing Plane

Originally Posted by Daimo

It can happen.

I read a mail the other week about a US Air mechanic coming home from Japan. Not long after take off he reported about a stream coming from one of the wings (like the airflow that goes white). Lots of arguing with the cabin crew later, he had the pilot come have a look.

Flight was immediatly turned round, the "white air" was in fact fuel and they would have run out hundreds of miles out to sea.

The bloke was given a free upgrade to 1st class on the next day flight....

So it can happen.

think he finally convinced the captain when he took some video footage of it and showed it to him! thank heavens for all aboard he had his camera with him!!!!

Originally Posted by Essex of Essex

This will bring out lots of "arm chair" experts and people will spout a lot of stuff that makes little sense, please wait for facts rather than speculate on as yet unsubstantiated media reports.

My thoughts are with those on board, and all those waiting for them.

Well said, the press is full of speculations and stories on the cause before the aircraft has even be located and the data recorder box thingy recovered.

My thoughts are with all the people involved...

Someone that is a little more knowledgable?

If there was a complete electrical failure...Would the cabin be de-pressurized? I'm not assuming this is what happened, but have always wonder how the cabin pressure is controlled?

[Mr Speirs]

Cabin Pressure would have gradually decreased if there was complete electrical failure but not explosively. They would have plently of time to desend to a safer altitude. But then again if there had been complete electrical failure the plane would start desending anyway.

Originally Posted by plowsie

Someone that is a little more knowledgable?

If there was a complete electrical failure...Would the cabin be de-pressurized? I'm not assuming this is what happened, but have always wonder how the cabin pressure is controlled?

Don't they have those little oxygen mask things that drop down? Although I hear they can be temperamental! Something like hypaxia or something where you can't breathe because the air is too thin... too many fancy words for my liking!

Me & the missus were trying to figure this out last night - how do planes know where they are? We figured it's a combination of old fashioned navigation (compass tells me I'm flying in this direction, speedo says we're going at this speed, last known point we passed was X, therefore we're currently at Y) and modern GPS (figure there's enough satelites up there that the plane can spot at least 3 from just about anywhere in the world?).

If all that's the case then wouldn't the automated message thingy that got sent out also include a "oh, by the way, this is where I reckon I am - send us a boat if you don't hear from us in a couple minutes"? Naturally the plane's figuring of where it might be in the world is liable to glitches, incorrect programming and god knows what else, and naturally in the middle of the ocean there's unlikely to be any radar stations that can verify the data.

Just struck us as odd that it's possible to pretty much lose a plane in this day and age (lose as in not know where it is). That automated message thingy - presumably that's radio - is it on a band monitored by traffic controls the world over or just the airline or the manufacturer? Have I missed something, would have thought that if that included a "this is where I reckon I am" location then (assuming that's correct) a couple of likely impact points can be determined pretty quickly (ie. if it went pop in mid air then it's likely to fall pretty quick and land within a mile radius of X, or if they managed a controlled descent they may have glided down to a hopefully smoothish landing within a couple mile radius of Y). At the moment it sounds like they're scouring hundreds of square miles of ocean?

Dunno, I'm no good at armchair aviation.

only conclussion i can come to is catastrophic failure of all systems resulting in it falling from the sky, no time to send emergency signal etc.

but....wouldnt they have found evidence by now? wreckage? doesnt the black/orange box emit a gps signal?

im sure there's an explanation to all this but it just seems weird....

I guess any black box thingies around now are unfortunately likely too far underwater to send any active signal out that's easily heard. Just seems odd that any automated message (not necessarily an emergencey signal but anything automated) doesn't include a line saying "this is where I reckon I am by the way" - dunno, perhaps it does and I've failed to consider something - I really do know nothing about the things.

Originally Posted by keithd

doesnt the black/orange box emit a gps signal?

Dunno, but would the signal get through from the bottom of the briney if it did? With all the 'planes in the air these days would they be tracking that particular one?

From the BBC website:
"Air France officials say the plane encountered turbulence about four hours into the flight. It then sent an automatic signal indicating an electrical fault.
They suspect the Airbus suffered a short circuit caused by a lightning strike."

is the plane def under water then?