***don't read this thread if you don't wanna know what I wanna show***
Hi all,
For those of you who are interested in aviation safety, I hope you find this of interest.
I posted a thread about AF447 a couple of weeks ago. In that thread I pointed out a comment made by some guy who reminded us (aircraft enthusiasts) about a vertical Stab (tail fin) failure with a previous Airbus incident.
Now it's not official, but I want to show you something very striking. I don't believe that the vertical fin failed in an excessive yaw maneuver (as in the case of the pervious incident), the stab on AF447, to my observation, failed not in a yaw, but from VNE+ air loads.
If you look at image AF447 10, the schematic, note the three structural mounting points of the vert stab to the empennage. Now in image AF447 1&2, note that the forward mount has sheared, and the second and third mount did not fail, but have torn away the structural bulkhead within the empennage itself. Also, note in the series of images that the leading edge of the vert stab has no damage from debris hitting it whatsoever, yet the lower rear of the rudder has been crushed. This allows us to suggest that the vert stab was torn away from the empennage along the longitudinal axis, pulled rearward with the top rotating aft.
These are strong indicators that the vert stab failed BEFORE the aircraft broke up and well before impact with the water. From the age and flying hours of the airframe, I can only envisage this was due to dynamic air loads, exceeding, by at least 30%, the aircraft's VNE (velocity never exceed). If true, it is possible that uncorrectable yawing into excessive air loads may have caused the fuselage structural failure aft of the wings.
Note the wreckage, in particular the crew [jump] seats, still in good order, without impact damage, and still sprung up in the closed position. Internal, cosmetic panels such as overhead locker doors, although torn off, have little if any impact damage. In one image, the entire galley section is in one piece, stowage containers and all!
This seems to have all the hallmarks of a fly-by-wire [flight computer] failure.
If you Google AF447 and go down 5 links, you will see a link which posts the same article that I posted here about two weeks ago; a weather analysis for AF447. This is looking to be a vital piece of the puzzle. Some of the comments, based upon first hand experience from retired commercial airline pilots, about ice formation, are quite compelling.
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/
Most aircraft incidents have their twists and turns, but I feel AF447 might well show us issues which most thought impossible.
Cheers
Mark