A Very Interesting Perspective On The Crash Of Air France 330

On May 31, 2009, an Air France Air Bus330 took off from Brazil and was supposed to land in Senegalese, Senegal. The flight number was 447. The plane went down in the Atlantic Ocean about 6 1/2 hours later. The presumed cause was a thunderstorm, but the Internet scuttlebutt was that it was shot down or their was a bomb on board.
Flight Level 390, which is run by Dave, a pilot for a major airline, writes what the crew probably went through. Dave's a much better writer than I am (who isn't?) and he writes a beautiful piece about subject so tragic: 1. As I suspected, the ground track did take the A330 through a line of thunderstorms, and then, unfortunately, through a second line hidden by the ferocity of the first line. In my business, this is known as a radar shadow. A radar shadow is extremely dangerous, as in WARNING: Do not fly through a radar shadow! A direct quote from the Pilot Manual.A warning, as opposed to a caution, translates to possible death and/or loss of airframe: another quote directly from the Pilot Manual. This is (major) serious stuff! The show portrays the pilots as confused and trying to understand the multiple warnings being thrown at them from Fi-Fi's electronic monitoring system as they penetrate the storms. The co-pilot is seen looking through a Quick Reference Checklist. I can (mostly) guarantee you that this was the furthest thing from their minds....
A thunderstorm is a tremendous atmospheric water pump. Part of the water in every storm is super-cooled, i.e., pure water with a temperature of less than 0 degrees Celsius and looking for a surface to attach itself as ice. An aircraft is perfect, especially anything protruding into the slipstream, like those evil and politically incorrect pitot tubes... Super cooled water will cover and block pitot tubes with clear ice instantaneously, easily overwhelming the heating elements. This, in turn, causes BIG problems with the air data computers, a primary supplier of information to the flight management computers.Keep in mind that all of this happens in seconds; the seconds that the pilots are trying to get a glimpse of the artificial horizon... Holy [deleted], did I just see a 70 degree bank and 30 degree nose down attitude?Her auto-thrust would, in the wild speed fluctuations, revert to a survival mode. Fi-Fi trys to protect herself from overspeeds and underspeeds, but with the pitot tubes temporarily blocked, she has lost her digital mind. The auto-thrust would eventually fail from the bad data it is receiving, further complicating a situation that is rapidly spinning out of control. And then (it's very possible), the unthinkable happens... The aircraft passes through an area of intense water/hail and one or both of the engines flame out. If you think your hands were full before...
http://flightlevel390.blogspot.com/2011/02/af-447-part-3.html

Dave's blog is a terrific read if you even a small interest in flying either as a passenger or a pilot. His blog is at: http://flightlevel390.blogspot.com/