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Russian airliner carrying more than 200 passengers missing on flight over Egypt

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Kule

Member
I don't mind flying but this is a terrible way to go, I can't imagine the horror being trapped and powerless to do anything. RIP to everyone unfortunate to be involved and their families who are now suffering
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
RIP.

Given the sudden drop in speed and altitude, it would be miraculous to have survivors. Unless the pilot managed to somehow control the plane in the last moment.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
I hope you don't drive a car. Or walk on foot. Planes are still the safest way to get around.

Yep. Plane disasters get a lot of reports because they're so rare, but I understand why one would be more terrified of them. You have no control in a situation where you're thousands of feet above the ground in a cramped and crowded space.
 

YaGaMi

Member
Not the best news for me to read as I wait for a plane to leave Dubai. Not gonna mention the plane crash to the missus.
 

Timbuktu

Member
Yep. Plane disasters get a lot of reports because they're so rare, but I understand why one would be more terrified of them. You have no control in a situation where you're thousands of feet above the ground in a cramped and crowded space.

I think there is also the feeling that there is a little time between knowing you will die to actually crashing. Other accidents are assumed to be more sudden.
 

goomba

Banned
Russia 24, a state-owned news channel, as well as other Russian media outlets, are saying the pilot reported technical problems and requested a landing at the nearest airport before the plane went missing. This has not been corroborated by officials.
 

Juice

Member
It always has one result that's consistent... All the crashes were pilot error.

It's not that pilots are bad, but when 95% of the experience is automated, it's gotta be really tough to keep bringing your A game day in and day out.

The first time the computer fucks up, how can you not be expected to just panic and start twisting knobs, leaning on levers, etc?
 

Eric_S

Member
CSog8p1UcAAzukw.png:large

As a quick note for GAF, the red curve is speed, the blue curve i altitude.

That is one immense drop in air speed right there. Makes me wonder how it's calculated, if there's an moving average involved somewhere. (Ie is the reported speed dropping to zero or not, indicating other problems)


But related to that, an engineering tale from the trenches. (And on the phone, so the formatting will be what it'll be)

A few years back I was involved with testing done new connectors for an industrial product. It had a connector that carried a low voltage analog signal that was critical for the operation of the product, and said connector needed replacing since it was failing in the field and nobody knew why. Some detective work later it was revealed that one of its numerous sins was that it was susceptible to something called thermal motion fretting.

Now this is something that happens in (some) connector designs when the temperature goes up and down, and consequently the stuff in the connector starts to grow and shrink at different rates. Plastic more so than metals as a rule of thumb. And more specifically the part that pinches the pin, and the pin starts to rub, back and forth. Grinding away material, and if the material likes to oxidize... Well, then it probably will. And in all luck, said oxides tend to not conduct very well, at all. So that made the connector fail.


One of the connectors that where examined as a replacement was from a company called Nicomatic. A nice connector in many ways, but alas it was also find to be susceptible to thermal motion fretting. We sent the samples back to them after having then analysed by a third party institute and a contact professor (yes, those people exist apparently), and they claimed it was fungal growth that we saw. We weren't very impressed.

Now the root of this tale is that this connector design was claimed to be operating in aircraft engines (Airbus specifically iirc).

Of course the sales rep could have been overconfident in his product and decided to bend the truth a bit (he seemed like the kind of guy that would sell his mother to get ahead honestly). In any number of ways, like it's not used there, it is used there but another version without said problems, and so on.

This needn't be related in the slightest, as per above, and a whole other host of reasons (root cause of failure is unknown and what not). But still, it worries me.
 
I hope you don't drive a car. Or walk on foot. Planes are still the safest way to get around.
Every thread we have this argument and it's ridiculous. If you crash in your car it doesn't mean you are instantly dead. If you are involved in a plane crash it drops 30000 feet and you will die.

Those aren't the same thing at all and that is why people are scared to fly as they aren't in control and the consequences are much worse.
 
Every thread we have this argument and it's ridiculous. If you crash in your car it doesn't mean you are instantly dead. If you are involved in a plane crash it drops 30000 feet and you will die.

Obviously that argument is based on the number of people dying in car accidents and doesn't factor in survivors.
 
I have a friend flying into Dubai now

Not the best news for me to read as I wait for a plane to leave Dubai. Not gonna mention the plane crash to the missus.
What does this have to do with going over Syrian airspace from Russia? Dubai is the most trafficked airport in the entire world, it has more flights than Heathrow. Everyone knows someone going through Dubai today I wouldn't worry about that.
 

Munin

Member
Every thread we have this argument and it's ridiculous. If you crash in your car it doesn't mean you are instantly dead. If you are involved in a plane crash it drops 30000 feet and you will die.

Those aren't the same thing at all and that is why people are scared to fly as they aren't in control and the consequences are much worse.

Even if you only count deadly car crashes, plane are still safer by far.
 

Tarkus

Member
What does this have to do with going over Syrian airspace from Russia? Dubai is the most trafficked airport in the entire world, it has more flights than Heathrow. Everyone knows someone going through Dubai today I wouldn't worry about that.
That's Hartsfield-Jackson in ATL. Dubai is #3 ;)
 

chadskin

Member
Several Egyptian military and security officials say there are no survivors from the Russian passenger plane carrying 224 people that crashed into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

The officials all spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Aviation experts have reached the crash site near the city of el-Arish.

Officials say all the victims in Saturday's Metrojet plane crash were Russian citizens.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1584...st-egypt-confirms-russian-plane-crashes-sinai
 
Awful news, that's a lot of people. Very tragic. I've been in my life on two separate flights of really, really bad turbulence, and even though I didn't expect the worst, I imagined how terrible it would be to actually be involved in a crash. So, R.I.P. to these poor souls.
 
I don't buy this. Unless there was a bomb or a terrorist on board. But it's said that all on board were Russians.

I wouldn't be THAT surprised really. They've conquered a lot of land and got their hands on a whole lot of weaponry and vehicles. It's really not outside the realm of possibilities.
 
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