Air Tragedy

[lynbrown]

Would the passengers have lost consciousness before impact?

[Retrochic]

It depends how the crash happened. I'm no expert but by the vast area of debris (over 4 kilometers) I would guess it exploded very violently in the air rather than nose-dived into the side of a mountain.

[Gromit]

After.

[chrissa1]

That's not very nice, Gromit.

[ummmm]

But it's answering the question!

[chrissa1]

I don't think the OP was looking for such a "literal" answer.

[Retrochic]

And Gromit is probably wrong anyway, but its not a nice comment .

[ummmm]

Before impact? no, after, or at the time of impact.

Does that sound better?

[DTCwordfan]

the indication from the learned aviation expert/ex regulator on the Beeb this morning was that the plane had descended in an orderly rapid fashion, that they hadn't engaged in a reroute to look for landing or put out a mayday, the sequence being in that order....this could have been indicative of a cabin depressurisation, the question being for the passengers if it had been severe, then it would have been unconsciousness pretty quickly......

So what caused it? Speculation about a small bomb may well emerge - the plane had also been checked over the day before, a small repair to the landing gear effected but that wouldn't have led to a depressurisation incident though.

[youngmafbog]

// I would guess it exploded very violently in the air rather than nose-dived into the side of a mountain. //

Actualy they were saying it most likely hit the side of the mountain at speed then the debris fell down the side of it. And the area of debis is not really that vast.

Would they have lost consciousness before, wont know until the orange box is found, probably not though.

[Bazile]

Pure speculation at this stage
My guess is that it was due to the pilots becoming unconcious .

There is another possibility which is too shocking to even mention .

[DTCwordfan]

they believed this morning that the orange box would be found and like it's counterpart, it is designed to withstand such an impact as this.

[Retrochic]

youngmafbog - There is debris over an area of 4 kilometers is that not 'vast'

[Carakeel]

This is so dreadfully sad for all the families, friends and colleagues of the victims. And how sad it is that one of my first thoughts was that this might be yet another terrorist attack on so many innocent lives.

[youngmafbog]

No, not really retro. Plane full of fuel smacks at speed into mountain. A huge amount of energy to be dissipated.

The plane broke into very small parts meaning not a massive amount of energy for each part to be flung.

[DTCwordfan]

No it isn't, retro, the Malaysian flight in Ukraine was double that.....

[ummmm]

She did say she was no expert....

[ladybirder]

Just been speaking to the partner of a Spanish air traffic controller who has said it is likely, but not fact, that there was decompression in the cabin and the pilots quickly became unconscious and slumped over the controls, thus making the plane head straight for the ground. As it only took 8 minutes to get down the likelihood is that the passengers became unconscious very quickly. This backs up what DTC and others have said. News at lunch says they have recovered the black box, damaged, but should be able to retrieve the information required.

[chrissa1]

Would it not have been on, auto-pilot and flown on for some considerable time, if the passengers and crew were unconscious?

[TWR]

To the families of this tragic Incident, My families thought are with you. RIP

[237SJ]

If there is a decompression, the normal procedure is to descend (and it`s very steep) to a level where oxygen is not required. The masks deploy automatically in the cabin but the pilots have to physically pull their mask out of a stowage and put it on. If you are over high terrain (mountains) then you can`t descend straight away to that required level so it has to be done in stages. It`s called a step descent. Maybe they were planning a step descent and something went wrong (that`s if it was even a decompression)