Russian airliner missing over Egypt

leaskovski · 2 Nov 2015 at 10:30

1985420 said:
Impressive! Seeing as it didn't crash until Saturday but yeah ISIS claimed responsibility pretty much straight away.

It's now being reported that some sort of impact brought it down missile?

Opps, yeah... lol The days are blending in to one. This is what happens with a 20 month old tearing up the joint!

koolpc · 2 Nov 2015 at 10:48

For the pilot/s not to have gotten a May Day out just shows how quick this happened!

Cosimo · 2 Nov 2015 at 10:53

Tuppy_Glossop said:
Breaking on BBC News, the airline blames 'External factor'/'External Activity'. No further explanation.

The company that owns the aircraft playing the blame game and they've said that without the black boxes being examined.

ubersonic · 2 Nov 2015 at 10:53

koolpc said:
For the pilot/s not to have gotten a May Day out just shows how quick this happened!

Usually if they have lost control of the aircraft they are usually more concerned with trying to regain it or at least get it stable than informing ATC that they are in trouble.

Hopefully the flight recorders will shed some light on exactly what happened. Anyone know if they have found them yet?

Tuppy_Glossop · 2 Nov 2015 at 10:57

Yep, they got them almost immediately

ubersonic · 2 Nov 2015 at 10:59

Tuppy_Glossop said:
Yep, they got them almost immediately

That's good, hopefully they can get them to Paris ASAP and figure out what happened.

The vertical speed data drop looks pretty abrupt:

touch · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:19

ubersonic said:
The vertical speed data drop looks pretty abrupt:

The speed plot on the graph shows ground speed, not vertical speed.

(but from the context, I think you know that and just typed it wrong)

Third Opinion · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:23

Do any shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles have the range to hit a plane at over 32,000 feet?

If not then these militants have acquired some serious kit!

Greebo · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:26

I know nothing about planes but does that show it very rapidly gained height from 30k feet and then suddenly just came straight down almost vertically since the ground speed basically stops?

balky12 · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:28

Third Opinion said:
Do any shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles have the range to hit a plane at over 32,000 feet?

Someone will be in to correct me, but I don't believe so.

Tuppy_Glossop · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:29

Third Opinion said:
Do any shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles have the range to hit a plane at over 32,000 feet?

If not then these militants have acquired some serious kit!

No. But don't forget they could have gained access to the plane while on the ground at S-al-S.

Ayahuasca · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:52

Tuppy_Glossop said:
No. But don't forget they could have gained access to the plane while on the ground at S-al-S.

This would be the more likely scenario.

Nothing been said about any suspicious people on board? I imagine they've went through the 200+ names by now. That being said I'm not sure what airport security is like in Egypt, fake passports are probably useable.

Tuppy_Glossop · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:53

Ayahuasca said:
This would be the more likely scenario.

Nothing been said about any suspicious people on board? I imagine they've went through the 200+ names by now. That being said I'm not sure what airport security is like in Egypt, fake passports are probably useable.

Not necessarily a passenger (all Russian except for a handful of Ukrainians afaik) could have been bogus ground crew.

Five.Stars · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:54

ubersonic said:
Usually if they have lost control of the aircraft they are usually more concerned with trying to regain it or at least get it stable than informing ATC that they are in trouble.

Hopefully the flight recorders will shed some light on exactly what happened. Anyone know if they have found them yet?

I think the mantra is "aviate, navigate, communicate" in that order.

Ayahuasca · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:54

That's true, plenty of places to hide a device.

ubersonic · 2 Nov 2015 at 11:56

touch said:
The speed plot on the graph shows ground speed, not vertical speed.

Sorry I was referring to the table not the graph. The were some pretty big changes in the plane's vertical speed during the last 20 seconds.

[TW]Fox · 2 Nov 2015 at 12:00

Tuppy_Glossop said:
Breaking on BBC News, the airline blames 'External factor'/'External Activity'. No further explanation.

How can the airline possibly know this before the flight recorders have been properly interrogated?

Tuppy_Glossop · 2 Nov 2015 at 12:03

ACARS

DJMK4 · 2 Nov 2015 at 12:07

Not liking the way this is looking to be honest.

Cosimo · 2 Nov 2015 at 12:11

Tuppy_Glossop said:
ACARS

That does not give a constant stream of data so is not at all conclusive.