World air passengers reacted with unease when Air France Flight 447 simply fell out of the sky mid Atlantic on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Many months later the wreckage was discovered on the sea floor - and much later again - the " black boxes " that hold flight data were recovered.
Now we know how a malfunction of the device that records the speed of the aircraft caused an inexperienced second officer to make a tragic mistake. Believing that his aircraft was travelling too fast, this pilot lifted the nose angle which would cause it to slow down. It was the wrong decision because instead of travelling too fast the plane was actually below normal cruising speed - and by further slowing the aircraft stalled - and simply fell out of the sky.
From stall to hitting the water that Airbus took just three and a half minutes, but that time must have felt an eternity for the two hundred and twenty eight people aboard.
We consider air travel safe - despite the constant threat from terrorists to wreak harm in pursuit of their religious beliefs. The cause of the crash of Flight 447 might never have been known if it were not for those miraculous black boxes that record not only cockpit conversation - but the technical details of every aspect of the flight.
Now the clever people who piece together the clues will be delving into the reasons why the instruments that deliver speed information to the pilots were malfunctioning. All possible aspects will be considered - and steps will be taken to ensure that this can not happen again.
Considering the number of people who fly as passengers each year - and the huge number of flights worldwide that carry them - we have a considerably greater chance of getting hit by lightening than to die in an air crash.
That is a comforting thought - as we buckle our seat belts !
No comments:
Post a Comment