UKH

Germanwings flight down in the alps:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32030270

In reply to richprideaux:

Somewhere near Digne. Sadly it appears that survivors are unlikely.

In reply to richprideaux:

Shocking news. 148 believed killed. The pilot put out a distress call. Plane suddenly plunged from 38,000 ft.

My thoughts are with all familes involved.

In reply to Trangia:

Reports saying the plane was 24 years old. Not sure what the lifespan is of a modern passenger jet, but those A320s are work horses and short haul, that is a lot of pressurized cycles.

In reply to richprideaux:

Nasty. I was Skiing v. near there a few days ago. Even if there are survivors, they'll need to get to them very quickly that high up

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

Quite common to be that old I think - certainly my plane home on Saturday looked like it was that sort of age.... Concorde was 30 before the first crash (different use cycle of course)

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Snowstorm forcast for the area which will hamper investigations and search.

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

Age is not that important. Cycles and hours of usage is that usually considered for aging planes.

In reply to balmybaldwin:
indeed, in the late 90s I was involved in updating maintenance systems to allow them to process operations on aircraft with 1 million flying hours. The original systems had not envisaged more than 999999 but some of the original 747s were reaching that point then. A bit like a preview of all the work needed soon after to prevent the "Millenium Bug".


btw the Concordes in the fleet were regarded as extraordinarily "young" as they accumulated flying hours at a very low rate compared to miles flown.

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

Yeah I don't think that is too old . I was on a trans Atlantic flight recently with no tv's and had ash trays. .. It was ancient.

Very rare though, Lufthansa plane lost within Europe .

Odd. Sounds like it wasn't sudden either, hull intact according to reports, just a sudden rapid descent .

In reply to Roadrunner2:

The catastrophic event was probably very sudden, because it made a very rapid descent of 5000 feet per minute. This suggests to the experts that there was sudden decompression and the pilot had to get down to below 10000ft asap.

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

There's a thread on PPRuNe (Professional Pilots Rumour Network) about it at the moment. Always worth a read when something like this happens, as it usually contains a lot of very informed comment.

There are a number of suggestions like that, of a cabin pressure failure, an initial emergency descent and then a loss of control. However there are also others. I'd imagine we will find out fairly soon, though, as the flight recorders should be fairly easy to locate as it's an on-land crash.

Neil

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

yeah I mean sudden as in an explosion/break up..

Obviously something went very wrong and the plane lost height but as Neil said we'll know quickly as it sounds like they have the hull already.

In reply to Roadrunner2:

I'm about 30km north of the crash site. No loud noises, weather was perfect and calm this morning - obviously there's just no real way of knowing yet - although the terrain is rugged its not the bottom of the ocean so we will at least find clues as to what happened.

That's no consolation to the people affected by the tragedy.

In reply to richprideaux:
Some suggestions now coming through in news bulletins that the plane was well east of it's planned flight path when the Mayday* message was sent.

*It's just been announced that the pilot did not send a Mayday message, but it was air traffic control who declared an emergency when they lost contact with the aircraft