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BREAKING: Germanwings Airbus A-320-200 Crashes in the French Alps

posted by janrinok on Tuesday March 24 2015, @01:18PM   Printer-friendly

morpheus writes:

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'.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Tuesday March 24 2015, @03:18PM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday March 24 2015, @03:18PM (#161970) Journal

    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.

    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.

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  • (Score: 1) by TK-421 on Tuesday March 24 2015, @03:57PM

    by TK-421 (3235) on Tuesday March 24 2015, @03:57PM (#161989) Journal

    Roger that!

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2015, @06:57PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 24 2015, @06:57PM (#162083)
      Roger Murdock: Flight 2-0-9'er, you are cleared for take-off.
      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

    by Steve Hamlin (5033) on Tuesday March 24 2015, @05:12PM (#162026)

    "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

    by sjames (2882) on Tuesday March 24 2015, @06:03PM (#162051) Journal

    If the incapacitated pilot is slumped over the controls it could be a problem.