homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall Germanwings airliner down, French Alps

Terrible



From the article,

"Germanwings is a no-frills short-haul European carrier"


I'm sure there will be an investigation behind the quality control and maintenance routines of the airline.

Goes without saying. SOP.

Oh my...



I've flown with Germanwings several times in the past.

Me too. Never have had any issues with that airline whatsoever. Of course, as a passenger, you have no idea about the quality of maintenance.

RIP all on board.


Also a little sobering, as I am going to fly to Japan soon...

Crap.

Not to speculate or anything (much too soon), but I saw an article last week about a Lufthansa A321 that suffered from a severe loss of altitude in November 2014 on a flight from Bilbao to Munich.

Found an English site describing the incindent:

http://www.aeroinside.com/item/4946/luft...eet-of-altitude

Can't help wondering if the issue with the Germanwing's Airbus could have been something similar?

Poor people.

Re: Jayhawk's airticle above, that is new to me and quite scary. I flew the a320 for 4 years and loved it. To me it had a nice balance of automated protections and manual capabilities if things go to hell. But at risk of sounding like a geezer, I feel fortunate to now fly a machine that is little more than cables and hydraulics. And even the hydraulics aren't required to fly it safely. I'm not speculating on the crash; just making a general statement. Thoughts and hopes to passengers and crew and condolences to the employees of GermanWings and Lufthansa.

FLight radar history:

http://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/4u9525/#5d42675

My first thought is terrorism. Years ago my first thought would have been different.

The sudden drop of 31,000 feet in less than 10 minutes certainly brings up a lot of questions.

Plunging 5000ft/mn. OMG.

http://news.sky.com/story/1451536/no-survivors-expected-in-france-plane-crash

The LH A321 from the article I've posted dropped at 4000 fpm. Also on a flight from Spain to Germany on a similar route, crossing the Alps. Also during a transitional seasonal period (November vs. March) with warm/moist and cold/dry air mixing over the southern Alps.

Bad weather predicted in the area, and the wreck can't be reached by normal roads. If the bad weather continues helicopters also won't be able to reach the site.

Terrible year (and a bit) for aviation.

Considering the sheer number of hours these planes have flown and fly everyday, no matter what the cause it's still an aberration.

Funny how people just accept auto accidents as a matter of a course with a shrug, but any other mode of transportation from air to sea to trains requires a lot of discussion.



The Jedi Master

CEO of Germanwings just said aircraft was in maintenance the previous day.

Airliners are in a constant state of maintenance.

That actually caused an Airbus crash a few years back:

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/article...n-crash-347457/

There was a really interesting episode of Mayday about that incident. Turns out that maintenance crews used a high pressure hose to clean the aircraft (not standard procedure) which forced water into the sensors which then froze at altitude.

There's not enough data to speculate any particular cause on this accident yet, though.

Wait!

So the dotted straight line it's the flight original course?

If it is, it means it went off course toward the Alps... way off course!

I have flown over the Alps many times and many times when I did and I look out of the window and see those mountains, I have had thoughts of this would be a place that if you get lost in it while hiking or climbing or skiing no one will ever find you.

No, that's just a simple graphic showing the departure and destination. At the bottom of the page you can check the flightpaths of earlier flights between Barcelona and Dusseldorf.