A sort of "blue skies" thought experiment repair scenario, makes a change , previously discussed here submerged into thread "Post mortem on an IEC connector", June 2009
Now a second airbus A330 , fly by wire, same carrier , has had very similar experience . 12 miles from the previous fatal one. To me looks more like software failure, any ideas what co-ordinate system could give a divide by zero there , millenium bug type possibility? Or any other thoughts ? After all if NASA can confuse metres and nautical miles and lose a Mars mission.
Air France jet issued mayday alert close to where Flight AF447 disappeared
Investigators hope to shed light on June crash by examining why similar plane ran into difficulty last month on same route
- Lizzy Davies in Paris * guardian.co.uk, Thursday 10 December 2009 19.42 GMT
France's accident investigation agency has opened an inquiry into an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris which ran into difficulties last month just miles from where another of its planes vanished in June with 228 people on board.
In an attempt to "shed light" on the crash of Flight AF447, which went missing while flying over the Atlantic, the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses (BEA) said it was looking into what triggered Flight AF445 to issue a mayday signal flying the same route on 29 November. "We cannot ignore such a coincidence," said a spokesman.
The A330 airbus - the same model as the aeroplane which went down on 1 June - was four hours into its flight to the French capital when it hit heavy turbulence, an Air France statement said. "[The aircraft] performed a standard descent in order to avoid a zone of severe turbulence and get back to a less turbulent level of flight."
The airline insists the emergency signal was not sent because the pilots believed they were in danger.
But, according to French media reports, the jet descended by far more than
300 metres - which is the standard procedure for avoiding turbulence - causing panic on board. Le Figaro reported that the plane plunged from 11,000 metres to 9,300 metres and quoted one passenger as writing afterwards that the aircraft appeared to be "no longer under control".Air France today refused to comment, referring journalists to the BEA. The agency said it would need to interview the crew before reaching any conclusions. But it said the parallels between the two cases could yield "new information" about the June tragedy, the causes of which have so far eluded investigators.
Flight AF445 encountered difficulties ten10 nautical miles (12 miles) from where AF447 is believed to have disappeared, prompting the media to speculate about a "black hole" of hostile flight conditions above the Atlantic.
However other experts warned the comparison could only go so far. AF445 had nothing visibly wrong with its pitot tubes, speed sensors, believed to have been a factor in the June disaster. Eric Mas, a meteorologist, added that records showed significant differences between the conditions experienced by the two planes.
Despite the recovery of bodies and pieces of wreckage, the black boxes of AF447 have not been found. An initial report in July concluded the aeroplane had plunged intact into the Atlantic. The BEA will give an update on its findings next week.