If it's Boeing I ain't going

another factoid

"The Express understands that the last words heard over the radio during a Mayday call that Air Traffic Control did not have time to respond to were "engine failure""

I think the probabilities are leaning towards double engine failure is the 'what?' But why?

Tory graph

"Dr Jason Knight, senior lecturer in fluid mechanics, University of Portsmouth, added: “The aircraft is designed to be able to fly on one engine, so the most likely cause of the crash is a double engine failure.

It went on to say that the airport is notorious for bird strikes, and that the take off run in 40°C heat probably ought to have been longer, but a plane doesn't *get* to 600 feet without enough airspeed

Terrifying. This is the video of the Korean 737 hitting birds in December - watch at least the first 3 minutes:

The crew of that flight did attempt to go around but it was too late to miss the birds, and by doing so they were no longer on a stabilised approach and couldn't glide in to land.

(Juan Browne is a B777 FO with United - I'd wait for his video which will no doubt discuss the available public source information, and they usually come out quite quickly. Ah, I see there was one out a few minutes ago - looks like he's out flying and has some good questions but no answers at this stage:

Theo

Not high, but it happened a few years ago, but the pilot had the Hudson river to land on. The Telegraph story alleges these has been trouble with birdstrikes at that airport, but reduced now by countermeasures.

I think, from the explosion, yes.

But it *is* DIY. As we all know, DIY air crash investigation makes sure you do a proper job and not cutting corners compared with getting a man from the NTSB in to do a bodge job. And you save lots of money too. Why would you pay a professional?

Theo

It's extraordinarily random that one person not only survived the crash, but walked away, more or less unharmed.

Oh, and if we're going to speculate, where was the fire? There was 50 tons of aviation fuel on board, and the videos clearly show masses of smoke after the crash.

Yet, the plane ended up embedded in the mess hall of the medical hostel, with no trace of fire on the plane or in the mess hall. One wing appears to have survived fairly intact.

The guy was sitting by the emergency exit. So managed to get away from the fireball

What about that girl who fell out of a Lockheed Electra, in her seat, and fell 10,000 ft into the Amazonian rain forest, and survived and crawled her way to a logging camp.

And didn't someone fall through an Essex supermarket roof, and survive, a few years ago.

Cant find a reference to that. Might be false memory...

If a plane comes down mostly intact there is a fair chance that someone will make it out.

wing tanks would have ruptured and the fuel spewed forward away from the plane

All I have seen is the rear fuselage and tail.

another CCTV or phone video of takeoff.

It vaguely looks like it might have lost the right engine very quickly - it seems to yaw to the right - before the plane straightens up and it starts losing height

The problem seems to occur at about the point where the gear would normally be raised. Which maybe explains why they never did

He wasn't even scorched.

"As many as 14 other passengers were later discovered to have survived the initial crash but died while waiting to be rescued.[5]"

He was banged around pretty good. He was reported to be disoriented when found. Could be a mild concussion. He has other injuries on his body.

The scenario itself, it's the kind of thing you need to practice in a simulator. The conditions at the time, require flawless execution. You can't be fumbling for the manual when this happens. In fact, you might even want to practice with your copilot. 3300 meters of runway, fully used by the pilot.

(This kind of simulator, with roll-pitch-yaw, shuddering and so on.)

Here's some of the terminology for a 787.

Or a very quick thinking individual and accomplices who in the confusion on the ground inserts themselves into the scene with a view to a claiming some compensation. On his walk to the ambulance he seemed fairly aggressive when people were getting close.

GH

It would be trivially easy to check out such an individual - their name is on the passenger list, their passport photos on file, and the airport computer knows if they boarded or not, as well as numerous CCTV footage from inside the airport. If they weren't in fact on the plane then it would be a very quick route to a police cell with quite some explaining to do.

Theo

Christ., You'll be believing that vaccinations cause autism next