junior pilot at the helm when Air France jet crashed

[LTC8K6]

Much of that article is incorrect, though.

It's not stated who was at the controls, and by the time of the hand off, the Captain was back, so the hand off may have been to the Captain.

Read the report yourself. There's a lot of garbage in the media. No single thing caused this crash, as usual.

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol.af.447/point.enquete.af447.27mai2011.en.pdf

 

[LTC8K6]

It actually fell at around 10860 feet per MINUTE which is around 123 mph. A near free fall I think,

Yes, free fall. No sensation that anything is wrong. No negative G.

Also going forward very fast. Total impact speed with the water was around 170mph.

 

[skyking]

I hope to shed some light into the kinds of situations that lead to an accident of this nature.
The Pitot system compares the pressure coming into the tube due to forward motion to the static air pressure. If the Pitot freezes over or is otherwise blocked, the airspeed will not change unless the static pressure changes, usually due to a change in altitude.
A decrease in altitude will result in higher static pressure.
As the static pressure increases the indicated airspeed will go down. This leads to a perceived slow speed condition which can be very hard to interpret if the aircraft is in clouds. The attitude instrumentation may indicate a level flight, but the airspeed and stall warnings may not.
In the opposite scenario, the pitot is not blocked but the static ports are. as the plane descends the lower pressure on the static side will cause the airspeed instruments to indicate an ever-increasing airspeed. I am willing to speculate it was a failure on the static side.
In this scenario the auto throttles would disengage to prevent an overspeed. Check.

The stall warning system may be triggered by an AOA vane. as the pilot flying takes over, he lost airpeed indication, and then it came back. If the plane has descended with a blocked static system, the airspeed is rising rapidly towards the Maximum Mach Operating speed. He will cut throttle and raise the nose, even though his actions are causing stall warnings. Exceeding MMO is simply that dangerous, and it can lead to fixation.
I speculate that both pilots locked into the pegged airspeed indication and did not interpret the conditions properly.
In flight training with the old conventional systems, we learn to trust that a certain aircraft configuration (flaps, gear, spoilers, etc) and a certain power setting (RPM, Manifold pressure, etc) will result in level flight at a given airspeed. The only variables that will effect that are airframe ice or faulty power indications. It is the fallback method to cope with all the possible flight instrument failures. Set the engine(s) to this, you get this.

 

[Zorkorist]

It wasn't the "junior" pilot at the helm, it was a 1st co-pilot that had paper-work saying he could be a Captain. The "Junior" pilot was in the Captain's seat, as the Captain had been taking a sleep break.

Here's what I would call the definitive thread on the subject... great reading from a layman's perspective.

http://www.pprune.org/tech-log/452836-af447-thread-no-3-a.html

My impression of the whole deal, again as a layman, is that the "Junior" pilot, as in Tenerefe, deffered to the more senior pilot (1st co-pilot), and by the time he took the controls, the plane was doomed.

-John

 

[cheezy321]

Reminds me of something that happened to my cousin. True story. He was on a plane to New Mexico when all of the sudden the hydraulics went. The plane started spinning around, going out of control. So he decides it's all over and whips it out and starts beating it right there. So all the other passengers take a cue from him and they start whipping it out and beating like mad. So all the passengers are beating off, plummeting to their certain doom, when all of the sudden, the hydraulics kick back in, and the plane rights itself. It lands safely and everyone puts their pieces or, whatever you know, away and deboard. Nobody mentions the phenomenon to anyone else.

That sounds like a story I just made up

 

[fire hazard]

That sounds like a story I just made up

You should write a screenplay

 

[guyver01]

I played a few flight sims

 

[Zorkorist]

It wasn't the "junior" pilot at the helm, it was a 1st co-pilot that had paper-work saying he could be a Captain. The "Junior" pilot was in the Captain's seat, as the Captain had been taking a sleep break.

Here's what I would call the definitive thread on the subject... great reading from a layman's perspective.

http://www.pprune.org/tech-log/452836-af447-thread-no-3-a.html

My impression of the whole deal, again as a layman, is that the "Junior" pilot, as in Tenerefe, deffered to the more senior pilot (1st co-pilot), and by the time he took the controls, the plane was doomed.

-John

It may be that the "Junior" pilot was at the helm, and I should not have been so definite in my response.

-John