Article

2014-12-28 Southeast Asia

AirAsia Airbus A320 Flight QZ8501 goes missing in Indonesia

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by badanov 2014-12-28 07:15|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Malaysia Air: "Not ours. For once"

Posted by Frank G 2014-12-28 08:34|| 2014-12-28 08:34|| Front Page Top

#2 CNN stock rebounds

Posted by Frank G 2014-12-28 08:42|| 2014-12-28 08:42|| Front Page Top

#3 "I'm not saying it was a black hole, but it could have been a black hole"

/Don Lemon Analysis

Posted by Frank G 2014-12-28 10:35|| 2014-12-28 10:35|| Front Page Top

#4 The Malacca Triangle?

Posted by Fred 2014-12-28 11:32|| 2014-12-28 11:32|| Front Page Top

#5 Or interdimensional forceps?

Posted by Fred 2014-12-28 11:33|| 2014-12-28 11:33|| Front Page Top

#6 How about airspeed system failure like Air France 445 a couple years ago: Airbus aircraft, bad weather, complete fly-by-wire system ( no pilot override ability).

Posted by USN, Ret. 2014-12-28 12:01|| 2014-12-28 12:01|| Front Page Top

#7 How about insha'Allah maintenance combined with a cargo cult culture. RIP

Posted by rammer 2014-12-28 12:15|| 2014-12-28 12:15|| Front Page Top

#8 3rd world countries are marginal at training and maintenance. With that it used to be they could only afford smaller planes. Thus after an accident the loss would be smaller. Now they have the ability to get older large aircraft and Airbus is making deals to these nations for the 300 series. They still don't train or maintain properly. Lufthansa has contracted with a number of Asian countries to get their aircraft up to par, aiding a number of carriers. EASA and the FAA turn a blind eye to them, unless the aircraft is flying to our or their countries, then they have to meet our standards. For example the runway at Manila has been condemned a number of times for a very bad dip 1/4 way down that will blow tires and ruin gear. Most US pilots land long to avoid it. If EASA or the FAA try to hold them to a standard it becomes very political very fast. While I used to fly a lot, I am very careful about what airline I fly outside US carriers.

Posted by 49 Pan 2014-12-28 12:16|| 2014-12-28 12:16|| Front Page Top

#9 While I used to fly a lot, I am very careful about what airline I fly outside US carriers. Posted by 49 Pan

Time is now on my side. I fly F-150. If you plan to interrupt or delay my flight, please have your affairs in order.

Posted by Besoeker 2014-12-28 12:19|| 2014-12-28 12:19|| Front Page Top

#10 USN, ret---you may be on to something. I read somewhere that the pilot was cleared to 38,000 ft. FL 380. Indonesian t'storms go up to 60,000 ft. I wonder if the plane was getting to "coffin corner" where to you go too fast and you get Mach buffet. Go too slow and you go into a stall. Not a good place to be if you are an Airbus control system.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2014-12-28 12:23|| 2014-12-28 12:23|| Front Page Top

#11 Here we go again . . . . :-(

Posted by Barbara 2014-12-28 12:42|| 2014-12-28 12:42|| Front Page Top

#12 F-150. Drink UP!

Posted by Frank G 2014-12-28 13:15|| 2014-12-28 13:15|| Front Page Top

#13 I fly AirAsia regularly.

The food is good, and while the Indonesian pilots don't fill me with confidence, neither do the unionized Australian maintenance workers.

Posted by phil_b 2014-12-28 13:55|| 2014-12-28 13:55|| Front Page Top

#14 The two previous Malaysian events were suicide by pilot and being shot down by the Russians. Hard to see how this could be due to poor maintenance.

Posted by jpal 2014-12-28 17:59|| 2014-12-28 17:59|| Front Page Top

#15 AP; Your scenario is scary; the pilot may have been trying to overfly the weather and ran out of lift, entered a stall/spin and was unable to recover.
Never have liked the Airbus complete trust in the computer; airlines demand the folks that they put in the left seat have oodles of hours and to relinquish all that experience to HAL is something I do not like. I try not to fly AB on long haul flights just for that reason.
Having said that, I think the AB product is excellent, except for that one little thing....

Posted by USN, Ret. 2014-12-28 19:22|| 2014-12-28 19:22|| Front Page Top

#16 jpal, I also doubt this was due to maintenance. I was pointing out that these airlines have both a training and maintenance issue. This one sounds more like what AP has said. The pilot flew into a massive up or down draft while flying manually. Again failed in training if this was the issue. A320's have great weather radar, ya have to fly around the red zones.

Posted by 49 Pan 2014-12-28 19:31|| 2014-12-28 19:31|| Front Page Top

#17 Fox kept running a chart this morning showing the plane diverting northeast of the route, whereas the crew apparently requested a southwest clearance. NE was right into the weather, what's that all about?

Posted by KBK 2014-12-28 19:55|| 2014-12-28 19:55|| Front Page Top

#18 I bet if you go to ufo.com you will get some very entertaining reading as the tin hat crowd grinds out some real doozies for theories on what happened.

Me thinks it is the old Airbus fly by wire system getting into a familial spat with the pilot and the passengers lost. Airbus doesn't want to admit how many of those technical monstrosities have flown themselves into the ground, gone into computer initiated spins or have just gone straight down into the ground for no reason..

Posted by Bill Clinton 2014-12-28 22:11|| 2014-12-28 22:11|| Front Page Top

#19 I've got to go across the Pond this summer. I go with Iceland Air. They fly Boeing jets, have excellent pilots, cabin crew and maintenance. We go ANC direct to Keflavik, then for us this trip the choice is: Glasgow, Manchester, heathrow or Paris. We will take Paris and take some pics of muzzies taking over the sidewalk before the city falls. Then on to edenburgh. Will miss Detroit though.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2014-12-28 23:16|| 2014-12-28 23:16|| Front Page Top

23:37 Thing From Snowy Mountain
23:25 Alaska Paul
23:23 RJ45ACP
23:16 Alaska Paul
22:30 Bill Clinton
22:25 Bill Clinton
22:17 Bill Clinton
22:14 Bill Clinton
22:11 Bill Clinton
22:09 KBK
22:06 KBK
21:36 JosephMendiola
21:13 Procopius2k
20:03 Thing From Snowy Mountain
19:55 rjschwarz
19:55 KBK
19:50 rjschwarz
19:49 KBK
19:45 Daffy Gonque1556
19:31 49 Pan
19:22 USN, Ret.
18:20 Procopius2k
18:16 Procopius2k
17:59 jpal