[hwy19man]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I was watching an episode of Mayday recently; I believe it was an Air France flight that had gone missing mid-flight as well. I seem to recall their sudden emergency also cut their power; so while the crew struggled to recover the aircraft they were also unable to use radio communications.

Originally Posted by Regorium

IF you're talking about AF447 (the one that disappeared in 2009), the issue was that they (the pilots) had no idea they were in a stall until about 35 seconds before impact. None of the pilots thought they were going to die, and everything seemed to be working in decent shape until it was too late.

They gently fell out of the sky over a 3 minute period with no thoughts as to their danger. That's why there wasn't any radio communication.

Originally Posted by HPLovecraft

I don't think many non-commercial, non-military aircraft fly at 35,000 feet, and if it was a collision with a commercial or military aircraft, or even some swanky business jet, it'd be almost immediately noticed, I would imagine, but I'm no aviation pro, so maybe.



I read an article about the capabilities of the 777-200, and there's backup power on the aircraft, so even if power was cut somehow, communications would still have been able to get out. Everything I read points to how bizarre it is that contact was lost all of the sudden. Even if the plane had some sort of electronic mishap, or the engines cut out, or anything, from 35,000 feet up, there'd be plenty of time to communicate with someone, according to the people that know what they're talking about.

Here it is. Interesting stuff: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/travel/malaysia-airliner-analysis/

The comparisons of that Buenos Aries to Paris ill fated flight are still being mentioned on various news programs. It took five days for the first sighting of wreckage. Storms were occurring where the plane crashed. The weather was much more calm for the Malaysian incident. The future Mayday episode for this will be complex.

I really feel for all the passengers and crew's families. It has to be unbearable to what they are all going through.