Timek
14 Apr 2010
News / Is it possible that Polish president was assasinated? If so then, by whom? [921]
Dumping fuel isn't necessarily a sign of distress. Tarpley may not have the best info on this, if he thinks there were 4 landing attempts rather than two.
When the full flight data is known it might turn out that the pilot dumped fuel to reduce the landing weight of the plane, which would also allow for a slower approach speed and better braking on a wet (due to fog) and not very long runway.
How much fuel he dumped won't be known yet, and it would be interesting to know if he had enough fuel to divert to alternate airport in case of aborted approach.
As for Fog, remember that looking down on fog or up at it from below isn't a great indicator of how thick it looks when flying through it horizontally.
The pilots surely were advised of the weather before descent (reportedly 1'C, with light tailwind and very high humidity... so thick fog was a risk.
The CVR file (or transcript of it) will be very interesting if made public.
The Pilot's attitude to the weather, and prospects of making an approach without good visibility or any ILS systems at the airport will form a major part of the investigation.
Any settings or warnings of the GPWS will be of interest,
and of course if there is any demand / instruction to the crew to land despite the weather.
This whole tragedy could be down to misadventure, the combination of several factors reducing the safety of the flight.
According to Webster Tarpley, who doesn't think that it's likely that it was anything but an accident btw, that it was the 4th attempt. The plane had dumped it's fuel.
Dumping fuel isn't necessarily a sign of distress. Tarpley may not have the best info on this, if he thinks there were 4 landing attempts rather than two.
When the full flight data is known it might turn out that the pilot dumped fuel to reduce the landing weight of the plane, which would also allow for a slower approach speed and better braking on a wet (due to fog) and not very long runway.
How much fuel he dumped won't be known yet, and it would be interesting to know if he had enough fuel to divert to alternate airport in case of aborted approach.
As for Fog, remember that looking down on fog or up at it from below isn't a great indicator of how thick it looks when flying through it horizontally.
The pilots surely were advised of the weather before descent (reportedly 1'C, with light tailwind and very high humidity... so thick fog was a risk.
The CVR file (or transcript of it) will be very interesting if made public.
The Pilot's attitude to the weather, and prospects of making an approach without good visibility or any ILS systems at the airport will form a major part of the investigation.
Any settings or warnings of the GPWS will be of interest,
and of course if there is any demand / instruction to the crew to land despite the weather.
This whole tragedy could be down to misadventure, the combination of several factors reducing the safety of the flight.