Could Airfrance been saved by gps speed?
December 23rd, 2011 | by admin |Just read the Air France 447 black box transcripts of the events. Apparently the pilot pulled up while in a stall because he as well as the other pilot thought it wasnt actually stalling since they were in a storm and that may mess up the airspeed indicator. If they had gps for speed, they would have known the plane was actually stalling. Whats the problem with using gps at least to estimate speed? Even if fps was not very accurate you would at least know that you’re not traveling several hundred miles an hour like you should be. Combine the gps speed with a good ol fashioned level which can’t ever fail and voila you know that yes you teuly are stalling.
GPS does give you speed but only absolute speed not air speed. At the altitudes that airliners fly at the wind can be over 100mph, that is a big enough difference to matter a lot.
The issue wasn’t that they didn’t know they were stalling. The stall warning alert was sounding the whole time.
The problem was that under normal conditions the computer in the aircraft won’t let you stall and so it’s safe to ignore that warning and keep pulling back. Due to the airspeed indicator freezing in the storm the computer safeties had disabled and so it was possible to stall. This is something the pilots should have known but seem to have forgotten.
The broken airspeed indicator didn’t cause the crash. Pilot error caused it, they didn’t understand or allow for how the flight controls on their aircraft functioned under non-standard conditions.
3 Responses to “Could Airfrance been saved by gps speed?”
By Kirk on Dec 24, 2011 | Reply
There is no GPS for speed. GPS is position not a speed indicator.
The fact is the pilot & co-pilot both ignored their instruments. A BIG NO-NO when flying a plane. First rule of flying: Always accept the instruments as accurate (especially in a storm & at night).
References :
By StephenWeinstein on Dec 24, 2011 | Reply
No.
1. GPS cannot be used to estimate airspeed. GPS can be used to estimate how fast your location is changing, but that has nothing to do with stalling and is of no use in the situation that you describe.
Airspeed is the difference in speed between the airplane and the air, not the speed of either one. Unless you throw a second GPS device overboard to measure the speed of the air and compare it with the speed of the plane, GPS will not tell you the airspeed.
References :
By A on Dec 24, 2011 | Reply
GPS does give you speed but only absolute speed not air speed. At the altitudes that airliners fly at the wind can be over 100mph, that is a big enough difference to matter a lot.
The issue wasn’t that they didn’t know they were stalling. The stall warning alert was sounding the whole time.
The problem was that under normal conditions the computer in the aircraft won’t let you stall and so it’s safe to ignore that warning and keep pulling back. Due to the airspeed indicator freezing in the storm the computer safeties had disabled and so it was possible to stall. This is something the pilots should have known but seem to have forgotten.
The broken airspeed indicator didn’t cause the crash. Pilot error caused it, they didn’t understand or allow for how the flight controls on their aircraft functioned under non-standard conditions.
References :