Plane Spotters.sg @ ClubSNAP – Official T.C.S.S Thread.

[9V-Orion Images]

Generally I feel the notion that lightning forced the aircraft to crash very misleading. That aircraft model A330-200 is designed to withstand lightning strikes.

In fact, SIA also uses airbus A330 except is the 300 version.

Yes, the aluminium alloy used in the construction of the fuselage, coupled together with the metallic skin of the aircraft acts as a form of Faraday cage that protects both living organisms and electronic equipments within the aircraft in the event of a direct lighting strike. In fact, lighting strikes to aircraft are quite a common occurrence that results in nothing more than a couple of thumb to fist size punctured entry and exit holes somewhere along the aircraft, and also maybe some damaged static discharge wicks, both of which can be easily fixed and repair.

Contrary to popular belief, the static discharge wicks along the flight control surfaces of a aircraft is meant to discharge any unwanted static buildup into the atmosphere that might otherwise cause unwanted noise and electrical interference to the radio equipments, rather than for lighting protection.

The quadruple, quintuple, or even more independent layers of fault-tolerant hardware and software within the Electronic Flight Control System (EFCS) and multiple flight control computers itself ensures an extremely high level of redundancy in the event any systems or sub-systems malfunction and is taken off-line for whatever reasons. Thus the reported "electrical circuit malfunction" message that was automatically created and send through ACARS could just be any small anomaly that routinely occurs throughout other flights as well.

However I think one of the main problems in Brazil is the lack of updated radar systems especially ground radar. I believe that the crew was not given updated weather information as most pilots do not generally like to go into areas of bad weather.

Airspace in Brazil is mainly controlled by air force personnel (who are very shorthanded) and not civilian personnel.

Unless FDR & CVR are both recovered, it is extremely difficult to ascertain and determines what exactly had happened to the aircraft as it was flying through a region with no ATC and radar coverage (as with most oceans worldwide). It is very probable though, and as with most aviation incidents, a series of ill-fated events had occurred thus leading into a chain of events that ultimaltely that to the demise of the aircraft.

 

[raptor1988]

so the aircraft is confirmed to be down?

 

[9V-Orion Images]

Possible debris has been sighted. Mine prayers goes out to all those on-board the aircraft, and to their family members.

 

[raptor1988]

Confirmed: Missing Air France Flight 447 has Crashed in the Atlantic

Air France regrets to confirm the disappearance of flight AF 447 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, scheduled to arrive at 11:10am local time today, as announced to the press by Air France CEO, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.

The Airbus A330-200, registration F-GZCP, left Rio on 31 May at 7:03pm local time (12:03am in Paris).

The aircraft hit a zone of stormy weather with strong turbulence at 2am this morning (universal time), i.e. 4am in Paris. An automatic message was received from the aircraft at 2:14am (4 :14am in Paris) indicating a failure in the electric circuit a long way from the coast.

The Brazilian, African, Spanish and French air traffic control centres all tried to make contact with flight AF 447 but to no avail. The French military air traffic control centre tried to detect the aircraft but did not succeed.

216 passengers were on board: 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and one infant.

There were 12 flight crew members: 3 pilots and 9 flight attendants.

The flight captain had a record of 11,000 flight hours and had already flown 1,700 hours on Airbus A330/A340s.

Of the two first officers, one had flown 3,000 flight hours (800 of which on the Airbus A330/A340) and the other 6,600 (2,600 on the Airbus A330/A340).

The aircraft was powered by General Electric CF6-80E engines.

The aircraft had totalled 18,870 flight hours and went into service on 18 April 2005.

Its last maintenance check in the hangar took place on 16 April 2009.

Air France fully shares the anxiety and distress of the families concerned. The families are being taken care of in a specially reserved area of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2.

RIP..

 

[Dovedo]

Unless FDR & CVR are both recovered, it is extremely difficult to ascertain and determines what exactly had happened to the aircraft as it was flying through a region with no ATC and radar coverage (as with most oceans worldwide).

Correctly me if I'm wrong but if i remember correctly, that area does have an Atlantic ATC Area control centre coverage? CINDACTA III ?

 

[9V-Orion Images]

Correctly me if I'm wrong but if i remember correctly, that area does have an Atlantic ATC Area control centre coverage? CINDACTA III ?

According to Flight Global and some other news article, apparently Flight AF447 left the Brazillian Cindacta-III Atlantic ATC and radar coverage zone as per normal, inbound towards Dakar airspace through a transit waypoint with no indication of any problem whatsoever.

It fails to make contact with ATC, which I believed would be through HF radio due to the transoceanic range, shortly thereafter.

 

[9V-Orion Images]

The Aviation Herald, article by Simon Hradecky.
Crash: Air France A332 over Atlantic on June 1st 2009, aircraft lost.


Air France reported, that they had received an automatic message from the airplane reporting an electrical short circuit and the failure of multiple systems at 02:14Z. Air Traffic Control as well as Military Stations along the Atlantic coast of South America, Africa, Portugal, Spain and France have been alerted and attempted to contact the airplane without success. Attempts to locate the airplane using civil and military radars from both west and east coasts (including France) of the Atlantic also proved unsuccessful. The airplane entered service in 2005 and had accumulated 18870 flights hours. The captain had 11700 flight hours, one of the first officers had 3000, the other 6600 flight hours.

Sources within Air France reported, that the automatic message did not only report an electrical short circuit, but also the loss of cabin pressure. This information has been confirmed by FAB, who also stated, that the position of the airplane was given as N3.5777 W30.3744 in that message.

New information provided by sources within Air France suggests, that the ACARS messages of system failures started to arrive at 02:10Z indicating, that the autopilot had disengaged and the fly by wire system had changed to alternate law. Between 02:11Z and 02:13Z a flurry of messages regarding ADIRU and ISIS faults arrived, at 02:13Z PRIM 1 and SEC 1 faults were indicated, at 02:14Z the last message received was an advisory regarding cabin vertical speed. That sequence of messages could not be independently verified.

 

[crazyK]

Confirmed: Missing Air France Flight 447 has Crashed in the Atlantic

has the debris found confirmed to be part of the aircraft? from what i read, they found some parts of the seat which they have not confirm yet..

 

[9V-Orion Images]

Brazilian Air Force and Air France authority confirms that debris and wreckages in a ~ 5 km radius correspond to those of AF447. Brazilian and French naval warships are due to arrive on scene to begin and expedite salvage operations.

The A330-200 (F-GZCP) was flying through a turbulent weather phenomena known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), with cumulonimbus (cb) clouds towering upwards of up to 50,000 ft - 75,000 ft in extreme cases, and are associated with thunderstorms.

Two Lufthansa aircraft (which was also incidentally collecting data under the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay Programme (AMDAR)) that took off 30 minutes before and after AF447, and was travelling in the same air corridor, passed through without any reported incident.

 

[9V-Orion Images]

Weather Graphics.Com.
Air France Flight 447: A Detailed Meteorological Analysis By Tim Vasquez.

As the tittle suggest, a very detailed and informative meteorological analysis.

 

[skypacker]

Quick question on behalf of a friend in India: what's the route for getting a pilot's license in Singapore? What are the flight schools? I took a look at the Singapore Aviation Academy and CAA websites but couldn't find anything.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: found a link fro the Singapore Flying College
http://www.sfcpl.com/

Any others?

 

[9V-Orion Images]

Quick question on behalf of a friend in India: what's the route for getting a pilot's license in Singapore? What are the flight schools? I took a look at the Singapore Aviation Academy and CAA websites but couldn't find anything.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT: found a link fro the Singapore Flying College
http://www.sfcpl.com/

Any others?

What type of pilot license are you referring to specifically? Student Pilot Licence (SPL), Private Pilot License (PPL), Commercial Pilot License (CPL) or Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL)?

Singapore Flying College as an affiliate of Singapore Airlines, trains ab-initio pilots for either a CPL/IR (instrument rating) or a ATPL/IR license. Thereafter, they will serve as co-pilots or pilots within Singapore Airlines and any of its subsidary (Silkair, Singapore Airlines Cargo, Tiger Airways, etc. etc.).

For either a SPL or a PPL wise, and due to the limited airspace in Singapore, only a restricted SPL and PPL can be earn through the following flight schools..

• Republic of Singapore Flying Club,
• Seletar Flying Club,
• Singapore Youth Flying Club (SYFC).

Training must be conducted within Malaysia for a complete and unrestricted SPL / PPL, the ones that are most popular with Singaporeans include...

• Elite Flying Club,
• ESB Flying Club (no website found),
• FRAS Flying Club,
  
  
• Johor Flying Club,
• Royal Selangor Flying Club,
• Subang Flying Club.

There are also other flight schools (other than the ones above) throughout Malaysia whereby self-sponsored PPL and CPL pilots can earn their CPL and ATPL wings respectively.

 

[skypacker]

Thank you very much for the detailed info.
I am not really sure what type of license he has in mind, so I will fwd your entire post to him.

 

[9V-Orion Images]

Latest NOTAM.
Reference ID No. WSSSYNYX - 5/09 (2009.06.02).

Post edited to reflect updated scheduled closure of Runway 02L/20R and 02C/20C, in reference to CAAS Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) - WSSS Aerodrome (AD) 2-11 to AD 2-12.


Also for bumped up for reference purposes.
CAAS Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) supplement 32/09 (dated 2009.04.02),
"RSAF formation flypast prior to and on Singapore National Day, 9th August 2009".

 

[9V-Orion Images]

A G550-CAEW (AKA Eitam) was seen conducting flight test in a circular traffic pattern from 1500 hours to 1620 hours, and with landing gears down above Jurong at an altitude of approximately 500 ft AGL. Multiple missed approach into WSAT was conducted, rego unknown.

Also, two vipers conducted simultaneous side by side parallel landing approach into WSAT yesterday evening. This was something that I had not seen before, and I assumed that either one landed directly behind the other, or onto a taxiway as the thunderous roar from the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engine (associated when "TO/GA" thrust is applied by the pilot in a missed approach) was not audible.

 

[9V-Orion Images]

Possible debris has been sighted. Mine prayers goes out to all those on-board the aircraft, and to their family members.

Brazilian Air Force and Air France authority confirms that debris and wreckages in a ~ 5 km radius correspond to those of AF447. Brazilian and French naval warships are due to arrive on scene to begin and expedite salvage operations.

The A330-200 (F-GZCP) was flying through a turbulent weather phenomena known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), with cumulonimbus (cb) clouds towering upwards of up to 50,000 ft - 75,000 ft in extreme cases, and are associated with thunderstorms.

Two Lufthansa aircraft (which was also incidentally collecting data under the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay Programme (AMDAR)) that took off 30 minutes before and after AF447, and was travelling in the same air corridor, passed through without any reported incident.

Further analysis of the recovered debris and so called "wreckages" reveals their origin to be of random marine debris thrown from ships plying the Atlantic ocean, rather than from Air France Flight 447.

Some spokesperson and officials just shot themselves in the foot with the previous confirmation in previous press releases and statements, guessed we're back to square one.

 

[raptor1988]

hmm.. so what's the status of flight 447?

 

[Dovedo]

hmm.. so what's the status of flight 447?

Missing

Only when proper identification of a plane's part that has a serial number and is verified by Airbus, Air France and a lab which will test that specific air plane's components will status then be updated.

 

[raptor1988]

Want to check with you guys about aviation games. Wad titles are you playing and what do you think about it?

I'm currently playing Flight Sim X and Tom Clancy's Hawx. FSX is quite tough in certain areas like landing and nav. But otherwise a rather relaxing game. Hawx is tough but rewarding.

 

[9V-Orion Images]

Want to check with you guys about aviation games. Wad titles are you playing and what do you think about it?

I'm currently playing Flight Sim X and Tom Clancy's Hawx. FSX is quite tough in certain areas like landing and nav. But otherwise a rather relaxing game. Hawx is tough but rewarding.

I have the PMDG B747-400 and MD-11 aircraft add-ons for FSX, and also X-Plane 9 which I used for aerodynamics experiments on the various whacky flight models that I had created in mine spare time.

Used to have a heavily modified version of Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, though i seldom play with flight simulators - or any other games for the fact - currently.