wow, just read there was a bomb threat for that flight, or SOME air france flight!!
0000h it gets better On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 10:02 AM, Vivec<[email protected]> wrote: > > "But that's not what happened when one of them went awry on Oct. 7 and > began sending erroneous data spikes on the plane's angle of attack > (AOA) the angle between its wings and the air flowing over them to > the flight-control computer. "For some reason, the damn computer > disregarded the healthy channels," says Hans Weber, an aviation expert > who heads Tecop International, an aviation-consulting firm in San > Diego. "Instead, it acted upon the information from the rogue > channel." The computer, responding to the faulty data, put the plane > into a dive. (Read "Is There a Cause for Fear of Flying?") > > In its preliminary investigative report, released on March 6, the > Australian Transport Safety Bureau said Airbus had initially said it > didn't know of any other similar events. But when the same thing > happened again, involving a different aircraft, on Dec. 27, Airbus > combed its computerized flight files and found data fingerprints > suggesting similar ADIRU problems had occurred on a total of four > flights. One of the earlier instances, in fact, included a September > 2006 event on the same plane that entered the uncommanded dive in > October (the other three flights had continued safely on). The same > VCR-sized ADIRU was to blame in both those cases, although it had > supposedly undergone a needed realignment following the 2006 event. > All three planes carried the same brand and model of ADIRU, as do 397 > of the 900 330s and 340s in the Airbus fleet. > > It is not yet known whether Air France 447, an A330, carried the > troublesome variety of ADIRU. But if it did, and if the Air France > plane plummeted into an uncommanded dive while traveling through a > downdraft generated by storms a common occurrence over the region of > the Atlantic Ocean where the plane went down it could have been > doomed as it entered a steep dive and likely broke up. > > Aviation authorities around the world have ordered inspections and > procedures to try to eliminate the problem. "In these fly-by-wire > systems, one never really knows if one has checked out all possible > combinations of events to make sure that the computer properly > reacts," Weber says of modern flight control. Fly-by-wire systems use > computers and wires instead of mechanics and hydraulics to control a > plane's flight. Electronic systems are more reliable than mechanical > processes but are prone to software errors that can't always be > anticipated. "There could be some other sequence of events that could > cause another bad software reaction," says Weber. > > The Australians' March report concluded that the October dive was due > to a series of events that, when combined, was "close to the worst > possible scenario that could arise from the design limitation in the > AOA processing algorithm." Airbus also told investigators that this > particular mathematical formula for flying the plane is found only on > its A330 and A340 models. "Different algorithms were in use on other > Airbus types, which were reported to be more robust to AOA spikes," > the report said. "The manufacturer advised that AOA spikes matching > the above scenario would not have caused a pitch-down event on Airbus > aircraft other than an A330 or A340." > > http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1902421,00. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:297957 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
