Airbus Crash.....

Normally I would wait for the accident investigation to conclude before I chime in on the Airbus crash. Since I am impatient and already know what the issue is I will just tell you. Others need stuff like “evidence” to come to conclusions but I don’t find that stuff necessary at all.

Airbus has a couple of glaring design flaws. The flaw most likely responsible for this crash is their over reliance on automation. Airbus relies heavily on automation to fly their planes. They believe pilots make mistake where computers don’t. So they design their fly by wire systems so everything runs through a computer. If the pilot makes a mistake the computer will correct that mistake and not allow any actions that could cause the plane to crash. In theory this sounds real good. But as you can see by all the dead bodies they are pulling out of the ocean it doesn’t always work.

Airbus has had several crashes where the over reliance on the computer has been the issue. Or the computer getting in the way of what the pilot was trying to do was the issue.

What happens is the pilot believes the plane can’t crash because the computer will not allow it to happen. They become over reliant on it. But sometimes the computer gets confused too and doesn’t know what to do. When that happens it just clicks off the auto pilot and leaves it up to the pilots to figure out. The pilot believes the plane is being controlled by the computer, but the computer has given up. So nobody is flying the plane. Other times the pilot has given commands but the computer decides not to carry them out. Other times the computer causes the plane to perform odd behaviors that nobody understands.

Boeing still gives pilots the final authority to fly their planes. Computers are there to help but the pilot is in control. Boeing still uses the old fashioned yoke. Their cockpit is designed so the pilots feel (and understand) things going on with the plane. Airbus got rid of the yoke and instead uses a small joy stick on the side. The pilot has a lot less feel in an Airbus with the way their controls are laid out. The result of this methodology can been reviewed at the bottom of the ocean.

None of this is new of course as it has been discussed for decades in aviation circles.

This latest Airbus crash looks to be a repeat of the 2009 Air France Crash. That crash was also at night, also over the ocean, also at cruising altitude, and also heading into a thunderstorm.

With that crash the speed sensors froze and the computer couldn’t figure out how fast the plane was traveling. As a result the computer kicked off the autopilot. The real pilots couldn’t figure out what was going on either. Out the window was black. The instruments were giving faulty information. They thought they were going too fast but in reality were going too slow. The response by the pilots was confused. The plane literally stalled and fell out of the sky. The pilot in the right seat was pulling back on his joystick. The pilot in the left was pushing the joy stick forward to bring the nose down. The pilot on the left was correct. The computer receiving conflicting inputs tried to make both happy and went half way between the commands. This couldn’t possibly be the correct answer but hey computers know best…… so there you go.

With Boeing everyone can see what is being done because the yoke is still out front (not hidden on the side) so this kind of misunderstanding would be less likely.

This latest crash also looks like the plane went up rapidly and stalled. Exactly like Air France. My guess is if this plane was a Boeing 737 it would have made it to its destination just fine.

With this crash people are trying to compare it to MH370 (the missing Boeing 777). When in reality it has nothing to do with that issue at all. But if the confusion distracts from Airbuses poor design well hey all the better.

No matter what the final cause turns out to be you can be sure of one thing. The dead pilots will be blamed. They always blame the dead pilots. For the industry that is always the best way to go. See if they blame the plane then they are forced to fix all the remaining planes. That would cost Hundreds of Billions. If you just blame the dead pilots then the problem is over. Everyone can move on. The best part is the dead pilots never argue the point. Sure 5 years later the next plane falls out of the sky….. but hey you can worry about that later. Well it is now later for Airbus. I am sure they will figure out a solid reason why it is still the pilots fault.