Airbus 320 Dusseldorf de Barcelona CRASHED French Alps

Crashed in French Alps. Rugged area. No chance of surviors.

Vertical Speed indicated at 3,500 feet per minute. Unsustainable.

Was on assigned 061 heading at 38,000 feet when "something happened" causing abrupt high speed descent down to 6810 (terrain).

Report of small plane receiving a distress call. (Unconfirmed and highly unlikely).

No significant weather. Some showers in area. Icing of AoA indicators deemed unlikely at 38,000 feet.

Some flight following radar data sites show forward speed of 24 knots and vertical speed of 3,580 ft/min.

One of the oldest A320s flying. German Wings.

Media reports of black boxes found is absurd.
Mountain Gendarmerie has not even reached the location yet.

POSSIBLE explosive decompression but why upon reaching 38,000 feet?

High speed dive to an oxygen rich altitude is standard. Use of speed brakes possible so as to sustain descent rate but avoid overspeed indication.

Seems strange that hypoxia/hypoxemia continued below 14,000 feet.

Media report of distress call from the airplane is unlikely.

Strangest event is why would explosive decompression take place immediately upon reaching assigned altitude of 38,000 feet.

As one of the most common airframes in the world you would expect a lot of accidents. But I think this is now 25 hull loss accidents with over 900 dead.

Boeing 737 Next Generation series has been involved in 14 hull-loss accidents and 10 hijackings, for a total of 527 fatalities.

I highly recommend a show on national Geographic variously called "Mayday" or "Air Crash Investigation." It recounts aircraft accidents and reveals the cause more or less in the stages the investigators determined it. They also include alternative theories during the investigation, and how these are tested.

What I find interesting is that some crashes involve incredible mistakes by the crew. Small ones. And all too often result from a simple lack of clear communication inside the cockpit.

I think two of the worst coincidentally involve Brazil. one was a Varig flight which set off on the wrong heading, and ran out of fuel far, far from its destination (or from any kind of airfield). The other is the Air France flight that crashed in the middle of the Atlantic. Pretty much one pilot did one thing, the other did something else, and a perfectly good plane in working order went down.

It would be easy to judge too harshly. But in-flight emergencies are tricky. Sometimes there is time to make haste slowly and determine the problem. Sometimes one needs to act immediately. The latter are the worst. Often a plane could have been saved had the crew been able to take the time to figure it out, but there was no time to do so.

I guess it stands at 6 and 6 for accidents over 100 people died (crew+passengers+ground) but the A320 accidents have just been more recent.

Airbus A320-A321
150= 6+144+0 24 Mar 2015 Germanwings Flight 9525 French Alps, France
162= 7+155+0 28 Dec 2014 Indonesia Air Asia Flight 8501 Java Sea, Indonesia
152= 6+146+0 28 Jul 2010 Airblue Flight 202 Islamabad, Pakistan
199= 6+181+12 17 Jul 2007 TAM Airlines Flight 3054 São Paulo, Brazil
113= 8+105+0 3 May 2006 Armavia Flight 967 Adler, Russia
143= 8+135+0 23 Aug 2000 Gulf Air Flight 072 Al Muharraq, Bahrain


Boeing 737 Next Generation
158= 6+152+0 Air India Express Flight 812 Boeing 737-8HG Mangalore, India LDG IIXE 22 May 2010
114= 6+108+0 † Kenya Airways Flight 507 Boeing 737-8AL Douala, Cameroon ENR 5 May 2007
102= 6+96+0 † Adam Air Flight 574[nb 11] Boeing 737-4Q8 Makassar Strait, Indonesia ENR 1 Jan 2007
154= 6+148+0 † Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 Boeing 737-8EH near Peixoto Azevedo, Brazil ENR 29 Sep 2006
148= 13+135+0 † Flash Airlines Flight 604 Boeing 737-3Q8 Red Sea, off Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt ENR 3 Jan 2004
132= 5+127+0 † US Air Flight 427 Boeing 737-3B7 Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, US APR PIT 13 km (8.1 mi) 8 Sep 1994

Quote: Fleastiff

POSSIBLE explosive decompression but why upon reaching 38,000 feet?

Strangest event is why would explosive decompression take place immediately upon reaching assigned altitude of 38,000 feet.

this image on a pprune post shows that the ac was at 38,000 feet for about 5 minutes before it started descending.

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/558654-airbus-a320-crashed-southern-france-3.html#post8913937

that's also about 30 minutes after passing 10,000 feet.

Quote: Nareed

I think two of the worst coincidentally involve Brazil. one was a Varig flight which set off on the wrong heading, and ran out of fuel far, far from its destination (or from any kind of airfield). The other is the Air France flight that crashed in the middle of the Atlantic. Pretty much one pilot did one thing, the other did something else, and a perfectly good plane in working order went down.

The Varig flight set out at 270 degrees (into the sun for hours) rather than 027 degrees. Passengers spoke up but flight attendant never relayed their messages. A student pilot might do this but no one else should be allowed to do it.

The Air France flight had no tactile feed back in those joysticks and the company still has the lowest number of instructors.

Quote: Pacomartin

I guess it stands at 6 and 6 for accidents over 100 people died (crew+passengers+ground) but the A320 accidents have just been more recent.

Airbus A320-A321
Boeing 737 Next Generation

This recent German Wings accident was the first flight after maintenance.
FOD Foreign Object Debris??

The first flight out of the maintenance hangar is often referred to jokingly as the most dangerous flight because of tools, clipboards, etc. left in the plane and jobs done on paper but not necessarily completed in fact.
The only trouble with that theory in this case is that this was German mechanics... thorough and precise.

Wow, pilot locked out of the cockpit and no answer while he is knocking then trying to break it down.
I wonder if the other pilot was incapacitated.
Before 9 11, would the door be locked after a pilot leaves a cockpit?

Quote: terapined

Wow, pilot locked out of the cockpit and no answer while he is knocking then trying to break it down.
I wonder if the other pilot was incapacitated.
Before 9 11, would the door be locked after a pilot leaves a cockpit?

Well didn't they reinforce them so pilots could lock themselves inside? It might of worked against them here.

Then again, so far nothing really adds up.

Maybe the person in the cockpit had a heart attack or stroke while locked inside? I wonder if that's something they could figure out in a autopsy from tiny body parts? Seems like that would be difficult to determine.