Yemenia A-310 Accident

[slang]

BBC News: Yemen jet crashes in Indian Ocean (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8125664.stm)

Airbus 310, during bad weather on approach. Predictable (predicted even, by Nicolas) responses in media: "Another Airbus! Is it even safe to go in vacation in an Airbus?!". If a 1995 Ford on a highway, and a 2009 Ford in a parking lot have accidents on the same day, will people stop buying Ford? Do newspapers print headlines "Ford Dangerous!"?

[geonuc]

BBC News: Yemen jet crashes in Indian Ocean (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8125664.stm)

Airbus 310, during bad weather on approach. Predictable (predicted even, by Nicolas) responses in media: "Another Airbus! Is it even safe to go in vacation in an Airbus?!". If a 1995 Ford on a highway, and a 2009 Ford in a parking lot have accidents on the same day, will people stop buying Ford? Do newspapers print headlines "Ford Dangerous!"?
Heh. Not to take this too off-topic, but that is essentially what happened to Audi. A few people couldn't distinguish the brake pedal from the accelerator and the media screamed "Audi dangerous!"

With the recent crash, I heard the plane had some identified deficiencies that weren't corrected. And it was a Yemen Airlines plane. Not to disparage that undoubtedly fine airline operation, but I'm not sure it gets regular FAA-style oversight.

[Nicolas]

Let's put it this way: that airline is -if not completely banned already- on the very edge of being banned from flying to Europe. This particular plane that crashed was deemed unsafe in 2007 and was banned from flying to Europe.

I'd look into the airline and the weather before pointing at the type of craft.

I've flown in an A310 4 times. The Belgian Army has two of them. One is used to keep the other one flying, that idea. But this is done in a safe way, and they're more or less replaced by now. It was an older Airbus, but a powerful beast and I felt safe in it. Even knowing that both had regular problems and one was used to keep the other one flying. I felt safe because I knew that there were certain standards to be met before the thing took of. Standards that are not taken care of on the plane that crashed today, no matter what caused the crash.

Anyway, it remains a tragedy. 1 child survived the crash.

[Trebuchet]

If a 1995 Ford on a highway, and a 2009 Ford in a parking lot have accidents on the same day, will people stop buying Ford? Do newspapers print headlines "Ford Dangerous!"?

Unfortunately, yes, they pretty much do.

[Argos]

Comment here about the Yemenia airlines A-310 accident (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8125664.stm), so we can keep the A-330 thread clean. Two different beasts, two [very] different airlines and differing circumstances.

[Nicolas]

Could an admin split the posts from the A330 thread to this one (and remove this post :))?

[NEOWatcher]

Unfortunately, yes, they pretty much do.
Today's example... Plane lands safely at NYC's LaGuardia after reporting bird strike (http://www.fox8.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-bird-strike-safe-landing,0,7017420.story)

Planes hit birds every day in the U.S.

Or Nearly every hour according to this page. (http://www.birdstrike.org/commlink/top_ten.htm)

[HenrikOlsen]

Done (and no, I don't want to:D).

[PraedSt]

Black box found (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8127947.stm)"The black box's signal was located yesterday [Tuesday] at 1630 local time (1230 GMT) by an aerial patrol, 40 km [25 miles] from Grande Comore," a spokeswoman for Cooperation Minister Alain Joyandet said.

A French vessel has been sent to the site to start recovery operations, she added.

[Jens]

two [very] different airlines and differing circumstances.

Very similar circumstances, AFAIK. They were not connected to the ground. That's the problem with airplanes in genearal. If only they could keep them connected to the ground they wouldn't fall out of the sky. :)

It reminds me of a headline in the The Onion about the air france disaster. It said that French authorities had determined the disaster was caused by a plane crash. :)

[PraedSt]

Black box found (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8127947.stm)

Apparently not (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8128690.stm).A French government minister has reversed earlier claims that a "black box" recorder from a plane that crashed in the Indian Ocean has been found.French Minister for Co-operation Alain Joyandet said signals picked up by rescuers came from a distress beacon.

[Paracelsus]

What concerns me the most RE crashes of this type is the scheme of replacing the steel carapace on these things with carbon fiber, which has a purported habit of being fracture-prone under conditions of stress encountered in severe turbulence.

[Jay200MPH]

I've flown on loads of dodgy Indonesian airlines, many of which use Airbuses and all of which have been banned from landing in Europe. I really don't need to hear about these incidents.

[Nicolas]

The fact that they use Airbuses is irrelevant if their maintenance would be bad. A Boeing or McD needs to maintained just as well as an Airbus. Well maintained, they're all very safe. Badly maintained, they're all very dangerous.

[Nicolas]

What concerns me the most RE crashes of this type is the scheme of replacing the steel carapace on these things with carbon fiber, which has a purported habit of being fracture-prone under conditions of stress encountered in severe turbulence.

First of all, these things are severly tested. Second, modern airliners tend to use composites such as GLARE rather than "simple" carbon fibre composites. GLARE is simply stated a sandwich of (thin) layers of aluminum with layers of (glass?) fibre reinforced resin.

[PraedSt]

Besides, these planes are not made of steel.

[Nicolas]

Some very specific parts are, but the vast majority of the metal used in aircraft is Al-2024 aluminum alloy. Al-7075 is another aluminum alloy used a lot. Of course there's many more aluminum alloys used, but those are the two classics.