Discussion for article #234621
The A320 is certified to fly up to 39,000 feet but it can begin to experience problems as low as 37,000 feet, depending on temperature and weight, including fuel, cargo and passengers.
Experience problems? What in the hell is AP talking about? The A320 has a service ceiling like all airplanes do, and it may not be able to climb past a lower altitude due to temperature and weight, but “experience problems”? That implies that the plane has a higher risk of some type of malfunction at 37,000 feet. Which is not true.The only “problem” you might encounter in a higher-than-standard temperature, lower-than-standard pressure environment at altitude is you can’t climb any more.
CNN is reporting the debris is in small bits …that would imply a mid-air explosion to me.
My condolences to those affected.
Not necessarily at all. If all the bits are mostly in once place, it sounds more like it broke up on impact. We have no idea how much they are looking at, plus a witness saw the plane intact and heard it making noises. Plus it dropped 14,000 in 6 minutes. If a plane goes almost straight into the ground at high speed, you will in fact get lots of small pieces. The engines might perhaps dislodge and roll for a long time, like Flight 93. But you will definitely get small pieces. A plane is only Aluminum and Rivets for the most part…
I’ve just seen video of the crash site and debris, and its all small, looks to be spread over several acres. In other words a wide area… I’m happy to wait and see what the experts say but on the surface and with very limited data on my part it looks like, to my untrained eye, that the plane shattered before hitting the ground.
And as I said earlier, my condolences to those families affected.
If it exploded at a high altitude it would be spread over miles. I doubt it was a bomb. The guy in the village nearby said it was flying and making noise. Sounds like engine trouble or some such thing. But we’ll see.
I did not say “High altitude” nor did I imply that.
True. The descent is odd for sure. Not sure if Autopilot would do that in a situation where the pilot was incapacitated and pressure was lost?
They have the Black Box anyway, that will soon yield the info needed.