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A Germanwings (Lufthansa subsidiary) Airbus A-320-200 airliner has crashed in the French Alps. It is reported to have carried 154 people on board (including 6 crew members). Unfortunately, no survivors have been found so far. There were reports about the crew sending out distress calls shortly before the crash. The flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf was last registered on the radar at 6800 feet.
http://www.laprovence.com/article/actualites/3326948/un-airbus-a320-secrase-dans-les-alpes-de-haute-provence.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/24/us-france-crash-airbus-lufthansa-idUSKBN0MK0ZP20150324
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/24/german-a320-airbus-plane-crashes-french-alps
[Edit 16:35 UTC. janrinok. Source: BBC] The 'black box' has been recovered. The aircraft descent took place over a period of approximately 8 minutes, and communication between the crew and the French air traffic controllers was 'broken' when the aircraft was at an altitude of around 6000 feet. The TV pictures being broadcast show a large number of helicopters being deployed to a snow free landing-zone but the surrounding mountains have significant snow cover and there is a low cloudbase. French authorities have said that the recovery of the bodies will take 'several days'.
(Score: 5, Informative) by TK-421 on Tuesday March 24 2015, @02:29PM
The A320 has multiple levels of computer control, called "law", with one of them being zero. When all else fails it will drop down into direct law. Yes it is still fly-by-wire, but it no longer is making any decisions on behalf of the pilots, pilot demand is directly translated to flight control surface movements.
With that said there are still some things about Airbus that I find concerning. I am not a licensed pilot though a few in my family are and my spouse and I have taken a few lessons. With that said I feel confident in saying my opinions fall solidly in the "enthusiast" category. First, even in direct law the flight controls (stick, rudder, and trim) are configured for "summing". So if the captain pulls back on the stick to pitch up maximum and the first officer pushes forward on the stick to pitch over maximum the plane does nothing because both pilots contributed inputs that cancel each other out. If the crew are not communicating with each other they have no way of knowing that they are fighting each other while the plane keeps doing what it's doing. If you study some of the bigger crashes in the last few decades you will find plenty of examples of both pilots disagreeing on proper course of action to regain control of the plane. One thinks the plane is going too fast and the other thinks the plane is on verge of a stall. Second, some of the flight controls on the stick do not have enough authority over the flight control surfaces to handle extreme events. An example would be when operating in one of the alternate law modes and the failure that got you there is causing the plane to pitch up thus screwing up the angle of attack and setting the stage for a stall. If the pitch is bad enough then neither pilot's stick has enough authority to fully push the nose over. The manual trim wheel must be used in conjunction with the stick. Like I said, I am just an enthusiast. I would be very concerned that if it were me in that situation I would forget to use the trim wheel. In fact XL Airways Germany Flight 888T had that very problem and crashed in 2008. If an experienced air crew can forget to use the manual trim wheel I know damned well I would too.
Here are links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_control_modes#Mechanical_law [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XL_Airways_Germany_Flight_888T [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Tuesday March 24 2015, @03:18PM
Which is why you have the verbal 'I have control' - 'You have control' handshake so that this situation is avoided. There should never be any doubt as to which pilot has control. If one of the flightdeck crew is incapacitated, and therefore unable to acknowledge the 'handshake', then he shouldn't be countering the input of the other. But, as VLM has already pointed out, it is much too early to have any significant facts regarding what happened - most of what is being discussed is speculation.
I can think of some scenarios where communication becomes almost impossible - but I don't think that any additional speculation will contribute positively to this discussion.
(Score: 1) by TK-421 on Tuesday March 24 2015, @03:57PM
Roger that!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2015, @06:57PM
Captain Oveur: Roger!
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: L.A. departure frequency, 123 point 9'er.
Captain Oveur: Roger!
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Victor Basta: Request vector, over.
Captain Oveur: What?
Tower voice: Flight 2-0-9'er cleared for vector 324.
Roger Murdock: We have clearance, Clarence.
Captain Oveur: Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?
Tower voice: Tower's radio clearance, over!
Captain Oveur: That's Clarence Oveur. Over.
Tower voice: Over.
Captain Oveur: Roger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: Roger, over!
Roger Murdock: What?
Captain Oveur: Huh?
Victor Basta: Who?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Steve Hamlin on Tuesday March 24 2015, @05:12PM
"which is why you have the verbal 'I have control' - 'You have control' handshake so that this situation is avoided. There should never be any doubt as to which pilot has control."
There are also technical solutions to help alleviate this problem, in addition to proper CRM, such as providing feedback between the dual controls.
Air France 447, the Airbus A330 that crashed in 2009 in the mid-Atlantic between South America and Europe: "The flight controls are not linked between the two pilot seats, and...the left seat pilot who believed he had taken over control of the plane, was not aware that [the right seat pilot] had continued to hold the stick back, which overrode [the left seat pilot's] own control." [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_447#Human_factors_and_computer_interaction] [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday March 24 2015, @06:03PM
If the incapacitated pilot is slumped over the controls it could be a problem.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday March 24 2015, @06:12PM
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday March 24 2015, @06:17PM
Yes, providing he's wearing it...
(Score: 2) by TK-421 on Tuesday March 24 2015, @06:21PM
Always wear your harness!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_5390 [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by TLA on Wednesday March 25 2015, @10:47AM
wow, that is nuts!
Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander