Airbus crash into Mediterranean

[orangehuggy]

A320 belonging to XL Germany / Air New Zealand depending who you believe ditched into the Med near Perpignan, France while on maintenance / training flight with 5 / 7 people on board, lives seem to have been lost

[orangehuggy]

D-AXLA is an XL Germany A320 leased from Air New Zealand so I guess that's the bird lost...

[sindeewell]

Airbus crashes in Mediterranean during training flight; at least 1 dead

47 minutes ago

By Septime Meunier, The Associated Press



PARIS - An Airbus A320 passenger plane has crashed off the coast of southern France during a training flight.


French authorities say at least one of seven people on board has been killed.


The plane plunged into the Mediterranean sea 20 kilometres east of the French city of Perpignan, near the border with Spain, at around 4:30 p.m. local time.


French officials say there were seven people on the flight, which left from Perpignan airport.


One body has since been recovered at sea.


Officials say the fuselage has been located and that five launches, two helicopters and a patrol airplane have been dispatched to scene.

[reubee]

From Air NZ Press Conference ... Owned by Air NZ, leased to XL past 2 years , due to return to NZ next week. Air NZ Flight crew, engineers, CAA officials in France for acceptance and return of aircraft.

Flight from Perpignan to Frankfurt, crewed by XL pilots, onboard 1 Air NZ pilot and 3 Air NZ engineers with 1 CAA rep.

30th anniversary of Erebus today.

[reubee]

...
30th anniversary of Erebus today.

My maths is out, 29th anniversary of Erebus today, and it would've still been yesterday in France when incident occured.

[orangehuggy]

So the lack of information about distress calls adds weight to cfit, but mx error also high on the list

[Schorsch]

So the lack of information about distress calls adds weight to cfit, but mx error also high on the list

CFIT on open water while is was still sunlight doesn't sound too plausible (although it is possible).
This was a check flight and I guess they didn't adhere to standard procedures.

This is a very delicate disaster (we had some this year), as it was
- a pretty new aircraft
- no landing accident
- no fatigue issues involved
- probably above average crew (they don't send the least experienced F/Os for the checkflight
- probably well maintained
- no distress call

Theorie:
It is not easy to crash a working A320 into the open sea, you have to f*** it up some way.
I guess they did some rather unusual stuff.

[Giles]

I guess they did some rather unusual stuff.

or the fbw system.

[Schorsch]

I guess they did some rather unusual stuff.

or the fbw system.

Giles,
could you do me the favor and not prove with every post you do on topic that you have no idea whatsoever when it comes to aircraft.
Thanks.

[Giles]

could you do me the favor and not prove with every post you do on topic that you have no idea whatsoever when it comes to aircraft.
Thanks.

i disagree with the basis of what you said, so the answer is no.

you, however, can chose to ignore me.

thanks

[monchavo]

I guess they did some rather unusual stuff.

When performing a reconstruction of the (last known) movements of an aircraft, does the data stored in the
recorders of this type of plane provide sufficient detail to allow a computer visualisation of the movements the aircraft would have
gone through prior to destruction?

[RadarContactLost]

Newer FDRs record literally hundreds of data points and there is software to recreate the flight. Here's a list of what's required but most modern aircraft go way above the requirements.
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/te ... 52&idno=14

[flyboy2548m]

Giles,
could you do me the favor and not prove with every post you do on topic that you have no idea whatsoever when it comes to aircraft.
Thanks.

Schorch,

Are you prepared to make that request of everyone else around here who posts nonsense?

[Schorsch]

Giles,
could you do me the favor and not prove with every post you do on topic that you have no idea whatsoever when it comes to aircraft.
Thanks.

Schorch,

Are you prepared to make that request of everyone else around here who posts nonsense?

No, I'm picky.

[IntheShade]

I guess they did some rather unusual stuff.

or the fbw system.

Concur

[Digger]

Maybe a mechanic left a monkey wrench laying around inside somewhere critical?

[orangehuggy]

Guys relax this isn't pprune (thankfully), I'm going to go with blocked pitot giving too high an airspeed indication leading to stall

[flyboy2548m]

Giles,
could you do me the favor and not prove with every post you do on topic that you have no idea whatsoever when it comes to aircraft.
Thanks.

Schorch,

Are you prepared to make that request of everyone else around here who posts nonsense?

No, I'm picky.

That makes no sense. In other words, you're OK with some parlor-talk, but not other?

[Procede]

The cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been retrieved: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... order.html

What surprises me is the very limited media coverage of this event.

[andrasz]

What surprises me is the very limited media coverage of this event.

No pax on board, and the Bombay events pushed pretty much everything else off the front pages.

I'd go with Schorsch, foolong around on test/training flights then loosing it has happened before. Remember the LH 720 where they tried to replicate the famous barrel roll, and fell out of it half way... ?

[David Hilditch]

I'm going to go with blocked pitot giving too high an airspeed indication leading to stall

Is that likely given that the aircraft had been airborne for some little time and had already carried out a few maneuvres ? The two notorious 757 cases where the pitot heads were blocked were just after take-off on the the climb-out.

[B77W-QOTS]

It was coming into land, it had been flying for and hour and half.

[Dmmoore]

Guys relax this isn't pprune (thankfully), I'm going to go with blocked pitot giving too high an airspeed indication leading to stall

"IF" a flying insect were to block a pitot tube in flight, the result would be a very slow change (due to calibrated moisture drain holes) in the IAS reading. More than one pitot probe would have to become blocked (I think the A320 has three).
Something happened, but not that. Iced probes? not likely but....
Ices or blocked static ports, same as above. Multiple port blockages is required. Each system has 2 ports that average static pressure.

[3WE]

I'd go with Schorsch, foolong around on test/training flights then loosing it has happened before. Remember the LH 720 where they tried to replicate the famous barrel roll, and fell out of it half way... ?

If the logic is that "it's happened before", then there's another long list test flights where something related to the "repair/service/whatever" was wrong, and caused a crash.

[reubee]

...

What surprises me is the very limited media coverage of this event.

I think that depends which country you are in. There is a lot here not surprisingly.

I wouldn't mind seeing a schedule of the tasks performed on such an acceptance flight.