Irony

[kiwigeo]

Today Air New Zealand lost an airbus in France.....today is also the anniversary of the Mount Erebus Disaster where they lost their last plane.

[Hesh1956]

Do they know any more about what happened yet. The last I heard was that the found the black boxes and then nothing after that.

I also heard that it was a training flight with 7 on board bound for Germany. The A320 is so very automated it sounds like equipment failure is the likely cause to me but what do I know.

What a shame for the families and the causalities.

[Paul B]

The plane had been leased and was undergoing testing before it was handed back to Air New Zealand. It had just been repainted back into the Air NZ livery. They suspect that some crucial external sensors may have been painted over.

[kiwigeo]

Hope youre not right Paul...that would rate as the biggest f***k up in history.

Heart breaking to see the Koru on that tail section lying under the water....brings back horrible memories of the Eerebus Disaster.

[joel]

Might have been the Static ports. They're just innocent looking little holes in a small metal panel mounted on the sides of aircraft. Usually marked quite prominently nearby with "Do Not Paint". The Pitot/Static system senses air pressure. Pitot senses the air pressure caused by aircraft movement through the air, and Static senses still air pressure. This information is used primarily for... the Flight Control Computers! I've spent many a late night investigating strange faults in the Orion auto-pilot system. Sometimes it comes down to something in the Pitot/Static system. Entrapped water, bug nests, or airframe tape (used during aircraft washes to keep water out) blocking the Static ports causing all kinds of weird stuff to happen. In the RAAF there are three levels of inspection following maintenance to ensure that these ports are free and the system works properly. You can now see why.