This episode is little hard to follow during the first segment. Basically, an Airbus is making a short hop to Strasbourg, intending to use the autopilot set to approach a different runway, then the pilots will taken manual control and land at the assigned runway. Instead, at night, they crash into a densely forested area about twenty miles from Strasbourg. There are survivors but it's mid-winter, the aircraft disappeared from the radar, the location beacon is inoperative, and no one knows just where the aircraft is.
Fearing an explosion, survivors drag themselves out of the wreckage and help the more seriously wounded. Three hours later they're still on their own. One survivor goes looking for help and finally stumbles into a film crew who are looking for the crash. They are skeptical because they don't believe anyone has survived. It takes four and a half hours before rescue teams arrive. Meanwhile, as newsreel footage shows, the eight survivors are in fairly bad shape. Eighty seven have died, including the pilot and co-pilot.
The French invite an international team of investigators to participate, including the American National Transportation Safety Board. It always surprises me at how easily countries can cooperate in the face of a disaster, with only a few exceptions involving the local police declaring the crash site part of their turf. The investigators themselves get along fine in pursuit of a superordinate goal.
As always there are multiple variables behind the crash. The pilots had had little experience with the Airbus. The instructions from the flight controller were confusing. Both pilots misread the instruments showing fight path and rate of descent. And -- here's the part played by Fortuna -- a gust of wind lifted the plane during approach and at that moment the pilot entered his instructions for a descent. The Airbus A320 wasn't equipped with an ground proximity warning so neither pilot had any idea of their actual distance from the ground. An obscure safety feature of the Airbus interpreted this as an emergency and increased the speed and the angle of the glide path -- as in, "This climb is dangerous; get me out of here!" A brief upward draft that lifted the airplane's nose triggered an automatic emergency response.
This excellent program then describes the corrective measures taken. (I still wouldn't fly in one.)
Fearing an explosion, survivors drag themselves out of the wreckage and help the more seriously wounded. Three hours later they're still on their own. One survivor goes looking for help and finally stumbles into a film crew who are looking for the crash. They are skeptical because they don't believe anyone has survived. It takes four and a half hours before rescue teams arrive. Meanwhile, as newsreel footage shows, the eight survivors are in fairly bad shape. Eighty seven have died, including the pilot and co-pilot.
The French invite an international team of investigators to participate, including the American National Transportation Safety Board. It always surprises me at how easily countries can cooperate in the face of a disaster, with only a few exceptions involving the local police declaring the crash site part of their turf. The investigators themselves get along fine in pursuit of a superordinate goal.
As always there are multiple variables behind the crash. The pilots had had little experience with the Airbus. The instructions from the flight controller were confusing. Both pilots misread the instruments showing fight path and rate of descent. And -- here's the part played by Fortuna -- a gust of wind lifted the plane during approach and at that moment the pilot entered his instructions for a descent. The Airbus A320 wasn't equipped with an ground proximity warning so neither pilot had any idea of their actual distance from the ground. An obscure safety feature of the Airbus interpreted this as an emergency and increased the speed and the angle of the glide path -- as in, "This climb is dangerous; get me out of here!" A brief upward draft that lifted the airplane's nose triggered an automatic emergency response.
This excellent program then describes the corrective measures taken. (I still wouldn't fly in one.)
