Comments on: AF447-Preliminary report into Air France disaster contains hints of an epic struggle for control

By: Keith is not my real name

Keith is not my real name — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:52:44 +0000

I’d be very surprised if any of the passengers were even conscious when the impact occurred.

I sincerely hope so

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:37:05 +0000

Patrick as far as I understand it, the messages that were transmitted by the aircraft before it crashed indicated that it underwent a sudden depressurisation (although apparently it didn’t break up according to this latest report). Any passengers that were unable to get oxygen masks on would have passed out very quickly from hypoxia long before the aircraft impacted the ocean. Also there was likely significant centrifugal forces on the passengers as the aircraft fell. I’d be very surprised if any of the passengers were even conscious when the impact occurred.

By: Patrick Fogarty

Patrick Fogarty — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:58:58 +0000

Does a high speed impact, such as the one that occurred for this flight mean an instantaneous death for those on board? Or would the victims have had time to be aware of their fate at the time of collision?

You can only hope that this truly terrifying experience ended painlessly for those on board…

By: Ben Sandilands

Ben Sandilands — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:07:14 +0000

Jeremy,

Good point. He made that comment almost as an afterthought. My guess is that he meant to say that the fact that the bodies were clothed but not wearing their life vests indicated that no emergency preparation had been made, or had been possible.

The drill on flights over water is that passengers will put on their life vests when instructed and in most case half-inflate them, pulling the toggle to fully inflate them as they go through the exit onto the slide. (You are shouted at to fully inflate the vest as you pass the flight attendant at the exit…in a perfect evacuation.)

The fact that the clothes had not been ripped off the victims by the impact forces tells us that a life vest secured around their waists (as shown in the video most of us never watch) would have also remained fastened.

By: Jeremy Davis

Jeremy Davis — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:51:21 +0000

“…Bouillard pointed out that none of the life vests recovered from the crash zone were inflated, suggesting the passengers had not been able in the circumstances to be prepared by cabin crew for a crash landing.”

Ben, all safety demonstrations and instructions I’ve seen ask passengers NOT to inflate life jackets whilst inside the aircraft. It’s strange that Bouillard mentioned this, do the French do things differently?

By: AF447-Preliminary report into Air France disaster contains hints …

AF447-Preliminary report into Air France disaster contains hints … — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:39:03 +0000

...] the whole story here: Ben Sandilands aggregated by [...

By: tatsco

tatsco — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:01:15 +0000

It will be interesting to compare the damage to the recovered fin to the fin of AA 587. It can be linked to The Impossible Dream!

Pragmatic Jim

By: LongTimeObserver

LongTimeObserver — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:33:17 +0000

For the avoidance of doubt as to the cause of this accident, and for what it may tell us about the efficacy of control theories, man-machine interfaces, aero-structures and their certification, one hopes that the parties will press on with a side-scan sonar search for wreckage, long after the pingers are silenced.