Saturday, June 6, 2009
Air France 447 - Investigators: Missing A330's ACARS sent 24 error messages (click title to entry - thank you)
By David Kaminski-Morrow
French investigators have disclosed that the missing Air France Airbus A330's ACARS communication system transmitted 24 error messages ahead of the flight's disappearance on 1 June.
Fourteen of those messages, says the Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses, were sent within the space of one minute, from 02:10UTC to 02:11UTC.
At a briefing in Paris today the BEA confirmed that the ACARS messages showed "inconsistencies" between measured velocities and indications of systems failures including the autothrust and autopilot.
It said the transmission of routine ACARS signals every 10min during the flight would give the inquiry a degree of certainty about its track.
But BEA director Paul-Louis Arslanian cautioned over the value of the error signals received, stating that they were "not designed for investigations" and only gave an indication as to the status of particular systems.
Arslanian says that while a connection between the signals and the loss of flight AF447 "would appear probable", there was no confirmation of "causality between the messages and the accident".
The BEA, he adds, is still collating information including radar data from Brazil while the search effort continues to locate the flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders.
This is the third. There was the one over the Azores, the Quantas jet and the Air France jet, I think there was also a New Zealand jet. The pilots of these aircraft are EXCELLANT. They know how to handle these planes and it is them that have prevented tragedy before this AF447. The problem with the Air France flight is that it was in the middle of the Atlantic with no place to land. The New Zealand flight was the 'test flight' were people died.
Qantas mishaps under review (click here)
AAP
Last updated 01:53
05/01/2009
Australia's air safety watchdog is investigating two inflight system malfunctions on Qantas jets.
In the latest incident, on December 27, a Qantas Airbus A330-300 heading for Singapore was forced to return to Perth after the autopilot disconnected.
The malfunction occurred while the jet was cruising at 36,000 feet about 500 kilometres north-west of Perth.
"The crew elected to return to Perth and an uneventful overweight landing was conducted," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement.
It said the incident was "similar" to one that occurred in October and would be investigated as part of the inquiry into that emergency.
On October 7, 70 of the 313 people on board a Qantas Airbus A330 travelling from Singapore to Perth were injured, with 44 needing hospital treatment, after the aircraft suddenly plunged, hurling passengers around the cabin.
The aircraft was cruising at 37,000 feet when the fault occurred, causing it to descend up to 650 feet in seconds.
The pilot made an emergency landing at Learmonth in north-western WA.
A preliminary report into the October incident by the safety bureau, released in November, found that there was a possibility transmissions from the Harold E. Holt naval communications station interfered with aircraft onboard systems.
The bureau is also investigating the possibility that passenger electronic devices aboard the aircraft caused the problem.
It regarded both as unlikely but said it could not rule either out yet.
The air safety watchdog said it was focusing on a flight computer system component called an ADIRU — air data inertial reference unit.
When the autopilot disconnected on December 27, the crew received a message indicating a problem with the plane's No. 1 ADIRU.
They then followed revised guidelines from Airbus issued after the October emergency.
Warning issued to airlines flying Airbuses
The Dominion Post
Last updated 01:14
08/01/2009 (January 8, 2009)
As emergency safety directive has been issued to airlines using twin-engine Airbus A320s after both engines on one stalled over the Mediterranean, just 18 days after an Air New Zealand A320 crashed killing all seven on board.
However, an Air New Zealand spokesman said its A320s, including the one that crashed, are equipped with rival International Aero Engine V2500s plant.
The directive from European and United States aviation authorities, comes as mystery continues as to the cause of the Air New Zealand crash off the coast of southern France.
Five New Zealanders and two Germans died in the November 28 crash during a test flight.
On December 14, an Air France Airbus A321 a stretched version of the A320 suffered a double engine stall as it climbed out of Tunisia, bound for Paris.
Passengers heard loud bangs from both of its CFM International 56 engines and the stalling occurred as pilots eased back on power.
The engines are designed to not close down on stalling and power was quickly resumed. The aircraft made a safe emergency landing.
The safety directive calls for airlines with about 1500 Airbuses to urgently check and repair high-pressure compressor fans on CFM 56s on A318s, A319s, A320s and A321s.
European authorities said that since April last year, six different engines used by three operators had stalled. These were followed by the Air France incident.
American authorities warned such stalling problems "could prevent continued safe flight or landing".
Meanwhile, on January 13 the French crash authority, the Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses (BEA), will hold a Paris meeting in a bid to move the Air New Zealand investigation forward.
Aviation sources say it is coming under pressure to come up with an explanation as the A320 is a European and North American commuter workhorse. Concern was already mounting following an October incident with a Qantas Airbus A330 that lost altitude after going into a dive, injuring 40.
A safety directive on software was issued for A320s last month.
The Air New Zealand plane plunged into the sea without issuing a distress call. Six of the seven bodies have been recovered but are still undergoing dna testing for identification.
