Athens plane crash.

Wow...lots of news threads today. Yeah, I read an article on the crash today. Sounds horrible...lots of things going to need some explaining on this one...like why the pilot wasn't in the cockpit...etc.
 
Seems the pilot was probably in the cockpit, just probably on the floor. It appears the decompression happened so fast that neither the pilot nor copilot had time to put the air masks out, but the F-16 escorts said they saw two crew people trying to regain control of the plane, and the body of one of the female crew members was found in the cockpit with the pilots.
 
Hmm, the story I read said the body of the pilot still hasn't been located...only the copilot. Maybe they've discovered more since then?
 
Actually, if decompression happens, what happens is that you have a few seconds (roughly 18 seconds at 40,000 feet with heavy activity) before loss of consciousness. That's why the pilots are equipped with quick-don oxygen masks that they can slip on in a matter of 5 seconds or less. So if the plane suddenly decompressed, the pilots still had more than an adequate amount of time to don the masks. (If you add the time for reactions and such - typically about 1-2 seconds to recover from the shock, another 1-2 seconds to identify the problem and to realize the solution, then another 1-2 seconds to grab the mask), it still leaves a bit of time.

Of course, who knows what really happened, though. Just that an explosive decompression does not lead to instant unconciousness.
 
And then they should descend ASAP to 4000m or less. They should inform airfield about the problem.. I really don`t know what happend.. It could be another terrorist attack (?). Worf, do you have any flight expirience?
 
Manufacturers should program the autopilot to bring down the plane to 4000m automatically when there´s a decompression.

Naturally, if the pilot is ok, he could disengage the autopilot and steer the plane himself. But the thing should be automatic at the first sign of problem.
 
Death said:
That'd really suck for someone flying over, say, the Rocky Mountains... :p
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You could hook an override through the radar altimeter for mountains. Another safety feature, desireable, but could fail also. With modern computing power, you actually could have a pilotless (or pilot-as-accessory aircraft).

But would you want to fly on a plane with no human input?;)
 
Ridgerunner said:
But would you want to fly on a plane with no human input?;)
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As a backup system, on an emergency, that´s better than NO one flying the plane (like the Greek 737)
 
Having a pilot as an accessory seems like a good idea, although I believe the autopilot does most of the work bar the landing anyway. If something did go wrong with the computer, I'd want a pilot there to fly the plane manually if needs be.
 
Something definitely went very very wrong...I'm sure more details will be forthcoming but I wouldn't be surprised if it turns up that the pilot was never on the plane. Something happened and they took off without him... Planes have gone down before but the authorities never raided the corporate offices for records...anyway, it'll be interesting to see the full story. As I understand it...the pilot, Hans-Juergen Marten, is still missing.
 
McGruff said:
If I could go this year, I would be driving to Dragon Con.
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Yes, we're all desperately attempting to scalp our tickets and put the money toward travelling safely, via the US Interstate system. Erm..
 
Frosty said:
Yes, we're all desperately attempting to scalp our tickets and put the money toward travelling safely, via the US Interstate system. Erm..
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You're still more likely to die in a car accident than in a plane.:confused:

There are thousands of flights each day the arrive safely, but only a few, like the Athens incident or the crashed Colombia flight, that end up in utter destruction. However plane crashes have an exceptionally high mortality for crews and passengers during an accident, so naturally it seems a lot worse.
 
To me it looks like this was just a plane that went down because somebody was too cheap to give it proper maintenance. Maybe the pilots just weren't competent enough to handle the situation properly or died before they could try. Shit happening is way more universal than terrorism or crazy conspiracy theories.

As for how a plane in unfit conditions was allowed to take off, or the reason why authorities are raiding corporate offices and what not, well, that's probably how they do things over there. :p
 
Supposedly the plane had just been checked out the prior week...most airplane agencies are very strict in maintenance requirements. I doubt that it was considered unsafe and still allowed to fly...still, lots of information missing right now.
 
You're still more likely to die in a car accident than in a plane.
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That was Frosty's point, hence the "Erm..". He was being sarcastic.

anyway, it'll be interesting to see the full story. As I understand it...the pilot, Hans-Juergen Marten, is still missing.
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No one who speaks German could be an evil man!

Seriously, though, this is a pretty out there theory at this point; plane crashes are nowhere near as intact as they appear on TV shows -- in all likelyhood the pilot's body is missing only because he wasn't strapped into the remains of the cockpit and thus they have no idea where to start looking for whatever little is left of him.

It's a very hard to piece together conspiracy - what was the motive? He didn't think the airplane was safe, so just didn't get on... and the rest of the flight crew covered for him? I'm not familiar with how an airplane of this type interacts with flight control, but I'd be willing to bet that the pilot has to communicate with the tower at some point during takeoff - if he were missing alltogether they would have looked at their recordings and figured out that this would be a good news story already.
 
Maj.Striker said:
Supposedly the plane had just been checked out the prior week...most airplane agencies are very strict in maintenance requirements. I doubt that it was considered unsafe and still allowed to fly...
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Well, corruption is also more common than terrorism. :p
 
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