Automated Plane

[a1]

ok i am never going on a plane with out a human pilot.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jg1uyRJjqaQ

[murjax]

ok i am never going on a plane with out a human pilot.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jg1uyRJjqaQ

Good idea. Humans may act stupid at times but most of them are not stupid enough to crash planes on purpose (at least I hope most of them aren't that stupid). Computers are nothing but stupid. We have to do everything to keep the computer working otherwise it will just break and cause a ton of problems.  ::)

[EGNX]

Actually the aircraft wasn't being controlled directly by the computer on an 'auto-land' like many people believe. It was actually being controlled by rather inexperienced pilots to trying to demonstrate this aircraft at the Habsheim airshow. The reason it crashed was due to the pilots not understanding the long spool up times that the engines had, and hit the trees before the engines started to gain sufficient power. If you listen in the video you can hear the engines spooling up as it starts to go into the trees. So really i'd rather go on a plane without and inexperienced pilot...

[Hagar]

The link no longer works so I can't watch it.

It was actually being controlled by rather inexperienced pilots to trying to demonstrate this aircraft at the Habsheim airshow.

It was a brand new aircraft so nobody except the manufacturer's test pilots would have much experience of actually flying it. The pilot was a senior Air France captain in charge of training & inauguration of the A320 into service. His version of events differed considerably from the official report. Some people still believe he was stitched up by his employers, Airbus & the French government. http://www.airdisaster.com/investigations/af296/af296.shtml

[born_2_fly]

Actually the aircraft wasn't being controlled directly by the computer on an 'auto-land' like many people believe. It was actually being controlled by rather inexperienced pilots to trying to demonstrate this aircraft at the Habsheim airshow. The reason it crashed was due to the pilots not understanding the long spool up times that the engines had, and hit the trees before the engines started to gain sufficient power. If you listen in the video you can hear the engines spooling up as it starts to go into the trees. So really i'd rather go on a plane without and inexperienced pilot...

Jet engines had been in use for decades before this incident, so this has nothing to do with lack of knowledge about spool-up times. As Hagar said, the pilot was a training Captain for Air France, so inexperience was not a factor. The crew were trying to demonstrate the ability of the Automatic Flight Envelope Protection system, which should prevent the aircraft from stalling by automatically increasing thrust. However, the system was not functioning properly, and by the time the Pilots realized and took control, it was too late to avoid disaster...

The reason for the engines spooling up as in went into the trees was due to the pilots trying to avoid the stall.  

[EGNX]

[quote]Jet engines had been in use for decades before this incident, so this has nothing to do with lack of knowledge about spool-up times. As Hagar said, the pilot was a training Captain for Air France, so inexperience was not a factor. The crew were trying to demonstrate the ability of the Automatic Flight Envelope Protection system, which should prevent the aircraft from stalling by automatically increasing thrust. However, the system was not functioning properly, and by the time the Pilots realized and took control, it was too late to avoid disaster...

The reason for the engines spooling up as in went into the trees was due to the pilots trying to avoid the stall.

[beaky]

The two lessons learned here are:
1)Never go along for a test hop in a large airplane with untested automation, particularly if a low pass is involved.
2) Always doubt every single word of narration in a given documentary, particularly if it involves plane crashes.

[bok269]

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_296

It amazes me how stupid some people (The ones who made/put that video on youtube with the narration and those that responded to it, believing it) can be.