Latest Flight 447 Guess
The CBC reports on the latest synthesis of the information gathered from the debris: Air France jet plunged at high speed into Atlantic
The pilot of a doomed Air France flight was flying with neither the help of the autopilot nor information about the plane’s speed and direction when it slammed into the Atlantic Ocean a month ago, French officials said Thursday.
…Lead investigator Alain Bouillard said the plane is not thought to have broken up in the air but plunged steeply into the ocean at an extremely high speed, because no large pieces of the aircraft have yet been found.
The aircraft “was not destroyed in flight,” he said. “The plane seems to have hit the surface of the water on its flight trajectory with a strong vertical acceleration.”
If the pilot was losing confidence in his instrument panel readings, was in the middle of major turbulence, and suddenly had the autopilot fail, it would be reasonable for him/her to decided to exit the area as soon as possible by flying what was assumed to be a straight and level path with more engine power.
Unfortunately it is not a good idea to depend on your inner ear to replace your artificial horizon in an aircraft, especially one that has been bouncing around, and possibly losing a great deal of altitude because of the turbulence.
