Air France Jet Crash: Are Commercial Jets Safe Against Lightning?

In summary, the conversation revolved around the Air France jet that crashed in the Atlantic and the speculation that lightning may have been the cause. It was mentioned that lightning strikes on commercial jets are not uncommon and that they are designed to withstand them, but there is still a risk of structural damage and electromagnetic interference. There were also discussions about the accuracy of models for predicting damage from lightning strikes and the difficulty of locating the plane in the vast ocean. Some debris has been found, but it is still uncertain if it is from the crashed plane. There was also speculation that the lightning may have caused electrical problems on the plane, leading to its crash. Overall, more research and investigation is needed to determine the exact cause of the crash.
  • #141
Chilling.
 
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  • #142
russ_watters said:
So it sounds like the cause was faulty speed indication leading to a stall, then pilot error in recovering: http://content.usatoday.com/communi...rance-flight-experienced-35-minute-freefall/1
So I was wrong: the pilot error was much worse. Greg's article basically says that aside from sporadic and not overly serious airspeed indication faults, there was nothing wrong with the plane: nothing affecting it's flyability. The crash was caused by the one co-pilot applying full back pressure to the stick for nearly the entire event and neither the other copilot nor the captain recognizing it (except for a brief moment during the first stall) until it was too late.

All other issues relate to whether the other pilots - or indeed the airplane itself - could have prevented him from flying an airworthy airplane into the ocean. So sad.
 
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  • #143
Somehow, automated warning systems are again being dismissed by humans in control. It seems they were oblivious to the dozens of stall warnings meaning they've come to not trust them somehow. That period where the stall warning went away because of attitude, later to return, while the aircraft was always in stall didn't help.

I see similarities to the subway crash in Washington, DC some months ago: automated signal failure, engineer oblivious, one train crashed into another.
 
  • #144

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