French Alps Plane Crash: Germanwings Crew 'Did Not Send Distress Signal'

[Purveyor]

The pilot of a Germanwings flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf did not send out a distress signal in the minutes before crashing into a 9,000ft mountain in the French Alps, officials have said.

All 144 passengers and six crew aboard the German Airbus A320 are believed to have died in the crash about 100 miles north of Nice.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, French aviation officials denied earlier reports that the stricken aircraft had sent out a "mayday" signal.

They said that the signal previously reported to have come from the cockpit at 10.47am was in fact issued by French air traffic control when the plane disappeared from radar screens.

This suggests that, whatever happened to the plane, events moved too quickly for the crew to warn controllers on the ground that they were in difficulty.

more...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/airbus-a320-france-crash-germanwings-crew-sent-out-distress-signal-10129987.html

If this report holds true, how many planes are we up to now that went into prolonged decent without the pilots getting off a distress call in the past year or so? I don't believe in coincidences.

[still_one]

1. The Airbus in the past have had issues with autopilot, and assumption of manual control. I thought

those issues were addressed

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. Flight envelope protection doesn't stop you from flying into the side of a mountain

[darkangel218]

2. This surely doesnt look like mechanical failure to me.

Even if the cabin lost pressure suddenly, shouldn't the Auto pilot have kicked in?

I hope they find the black boxes

[YarnAddict]

4. Electrical failure?

Computer failure?

[darkangel218]

6. Im sure someone had a cell phone in the cockpit, to call and report the emergency

If nothing else worked. 10 mins of descend is a hell lot of time.

[YarnAddict]

3. I've been watching the reports this a.m.

They said the descent was relatively slow--not like it dropped out of the sky--indicating that the pilots had some measure of control. Also, AFAIK, there would be all kinds of alarms that would go off if there had been pilot error.

[cwydro]

7. This is a very strange story.

Reminds me of the crash of flight 800.

[KamaAina]

8. We never did get to the bottom of that one.

I was in New Haven at the time, and listening to a news station in NYC. They interviewed a woman who had been walking her dog on the beach nearby. She described a small streak colliding with a larger one. That is consistent with a small plane crash -- or a missile strike , not the internal electrical failure they blamed it on.

[cwydro]

9. I know.

They eventually blamed it on the fuel tank.

I never bought that theory.

[mainer]

10. Some pilots speculating hypoxic event after in-flight crisis

The slow and gradual descent into terrain appears controlled to them, as if no one was awake at the stick. They speculate it's a similar case to the MH jet that vanished.

[darkangel218]

11. Dont the O2 masks deploy when the cabin pressure goes down?

[jeff47]

12. The ones in the back do. The pilots have to pull their own masks.

There'd be an alarm screaming at them, so it's unlikely that they'd forget.

[jberryhill]

13. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate - in that order

If they had their hands full aviating, then communicating would fall to the bottom of that list.

[Purveyor]

18. So during a 8 minute situation, neither the pilot or co-pilot could key the mike

and give a 'heads-up' to ATC.

Yeah, that believable...NOT!

[Blue_Tires]

14. "I don't believe in coincidences...."

So what DO you believe, then?

[Purveyor]

17. Little green men from Mars and Moon cheese.

[EX500rider]

16. Reminds me of Helios Airways Flight 522...loss of cabin pressure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522