Air Asia...

[garrobito]

As a private pilot I follow very close what could happened with this fly.
I know very good the Airbus 320 and it's a very good airplane under heavy turbulence.
Turbulence need to be extraordinary to affect that airplane.
Now, checking all data.. the last radar lecture reflect they're coming very slow... the airplane come heavy yet, with a lot of fuel.. and find heavy turbulence...
Add at this the fact the pilot ask to go high (at 38000 feet).
Maybe a pilot wrong decision?? the A320 have a limit of 39000 feet and ask permission to change altitude under heavy storm, flying slow and with all fuel yet onboard.... could be a wrong decision..
Any other pilot around???

[boatman61]

Latest is the pilot asked permission to climb but was refused due to heavy traffic.. 5 mins later they lost contact..

[garrobito]

..First tower control refuse due heavy traffic, they ask again and was granted..
My point is if a good decision change the aspect of fly under heavy stress, weight and a storm..
Believe me, even with all safety measurement the A320 have onboard, one time you dig down it's very hard to bring back at leveled fly...

[Tangogirl]

From all the chatter on PPruners, sounds most likely a stall condition may have occurred with left bank and quick climb in turbulence. Prayers to all onboard, family and friends - too bad it is taking so long to locate the plane and any possible survivors, as the window is closing.
Does it make sense to bring your own personal location device, strobe, EIRPB & PFD when traveling? oh and gas mask too in the event of evacuation in a fire?

[Brob2]

Given the slow speed of the aircraft and attempt to ascend I have to think his piton tube was iced over and he thus had faulty speed indications.

[garrobito]

Originally Posted by Brob2

Given the slow speed of the aircraft and attempt to ascend I have to think his piton tube was iced over and he thus had faulty speed indications.

..another Air France iced pitot tube... could be....

[garrobito]

Originally Posted by Tangogirl

From all the chatter on PPruners, sounds most likely a stall condition may have occurred with left bank and quick climb in turbulence. Prayers to all onboard, family and friends - too bad it is taking so long to locate the plane and any possible survivors, as the window is closing.
Does it make sense to bring your own personal location device, strobe, EIRPB & PFD when traveling? oh and gas mask too in the event of evacuation in a fire?

...impossible to pass trough my friend from TSA authority... and if is with the rest of your stuff.. useless

[Tangogirl]

I understand the PFD is legal for carry-on, you just need to print the TSA info that say it is, as many agents do not know the rules.
Was it so illegal about the PLD w/strobe as carry-on?
EPIRB - If it's in checked in and submerged, maybe it will still deploy in a crash in water? How bout handheld VHF w/DSC? What about a gas mask - I need my survival kit on a commercial plane - never know! If your going down you probably have about 3 mins.

Didn't they fix the probes (all now heated?) after the cause of the AF447 determined the pilots crashed the plane?
Maybe one pilot was pushing and one was pulling - like AF? confused about nose up or down?
I'm not a pilot, but a passenger a lot, so all this concerns me it's so hard to find a plane in a well traveled body of water and airspace.

praying they find the plane soon!

[garrobito]

Originally Posted by Tangogirl

I understand the PFD is legal for carry-on, you just need to print the TSA info that say it is, as many agents do not know the rules.
Was it so illegal about the PLD w/strobe as carry-on?
EPIRB - If it's in checked in and submerged, maybe it will still deploy in a crash in water? How bout handheld VHF w/DSC? What about a gas mask - I need my survival kit on a commercial plane - never know! If your going down you probably have about 3 mins.

Didn't they fix the probes (all now heated?) after the cause of the AF447 determined the pilots crashed the plane?
Maybe one pilot was pushing and one was pulling - like AF? confused about nose up or down?
I'm not a pilot, but a passenger a lot, so all this concerns me it's so hard to find a plane in a well traveled body of water and airspace.

praying they find the plane soon!

Well.. they replace the design after the crash of the AF.. and if I remember well, replaced the provider (Thales, french) for another...
About epirb and other stuff.. TSA can argue it's a transmitter and can "interfere" with system.. again, never tried it.. but I think could be interesting tried..
About gas mask.. humm.. at least could raise questions about it...
I think you're gonna ended send it with the rest of luggage... but as hand luggage on cabin.. I have my doubts...
Even if they have the right data about speed under heavy turbulence it's not a good idea tried to change the fly configuration.. you mostly tried to fly "straight and leveled"
But let me very clear here.. commercial airplanes are superbly and utterly safe..

[Tangogirl]

Maybe next time I fly, will try to carry on the PFD, PLD and handheld VHF to see what happens!

I usually feel pretty safe and given the statistics are very low for an occurrence, but becoming more concerned, especially in that part of the world on foreign budget carriers.

Scary to hear about no weekend radar coverage, poorly trained pilots, poor communication between pilots, etc. playing games on ipads and watching movies with the windows covered in the cockpit. Learned a lot from PPruners. Just thought the whole response time for MH370 was beyond slow.

[garrobito]

..a lot of changes are on way about commercial pilots... Usually the training for every rating is hard and very exigent...
Off course like everything.. you need to do your part...
As a ham operator every time I tried to bring my vhf with me I need to show my licence... even my pilot licence (and sometime I got the jump seat for free...

[stevec195]

Several thoughts from my experience flying in this area.
If the storm was truly big, climbing to 380 is just going to make your problems worse, so it is unlikely that would have made any difference at all. These robust storms go right through the tropopause and keep on trucking into the upper 50's. There are occasions when a climb is appropriate for weather, but rarely in this part of the world. The general procedure is to offset your track 10 or more miles and be done with it. That being said, there are also times when you really don't have any place to deviate to due to the widespread nature of the weather.
The pitot tubes will continue to come up over and over again until they find and analyze the flight recorder. Although the pitot tubes were modified, I am convinced there are combinations of weather that can overwhelm any pitot tube. Not a year after the AF accident, I experienced the same triple tube icing event in a completely different manufacture's airplane.


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[Pelagic]

I fly a lot with Air Asia and they are a very good airline that services many secondary destinations at good prices and with great service and new planes.

I think the genesis of the problem with all airlines is the commercial pressure to fly thru questionable conditions.... Provided you know you can land on the other side.

That decision is made by the airlines and not an independent safety authority that can declare a large storm cell area a temporary no fly zone.

99.999% of the time, the pilots will find a hole as other planes did in this tragedy..... But at the moment.... the customer blames the airline company for cancellation.

So the Weather performance pressure remains on the airlines. I think that has to change.

[Tangogirl]

Makes me wonder how the flight and captain were approved to go with a couple of dark red cells covering most of the flight path! although when looking at all the traffic in the area at the time, seems like it must be common to approve flights in those conditions??
Reading about a recent serious directive issued regarding the airbus plane and wonder how pilots are checked off as aware and trained - wouldn't be getting into my car with such issues and imagine car manufacturers would have recalls, at least lawsuits if allowing folks to operate with major known issues.
Sounds like common practice to increase the flight level to try to see a better way to navigate - thanks for your feedback regarding how big these weather patterns really are.
Like boats, you would think if water is hit on a plane - something on the fuselage would auto-deploy, or if your falling fast, g-forces would deploy something so the location could be communicated and pinpointed, isn't it called an ELT on a plane? In this day and age, with GPS technology so precise, seems like the air industry is behind. I thought I heard Inmarsat was offering free sat tracking - just had to arm planes with a $100 device. Safe travels and still praying they find the plane soon.

[garrobito]

I never flew on an storm with such strong cell..
But I remember a very strong one over Panama with turbulence.. we went up and down almost 10 feet.. not a very good experience for passenger and crew!!
I was flying a citation sierra.. small jet... memorable..
About tactic for that kind of storm.. we did exactly like stevec195 write... go off course slightly in order to avoid the worst...
Never have problem with icing condition... (until now at least... )