Tickles my mind...

[JakesF14]

Well, after reading in a magazine about the crash of the French Airbus From South America to London, The suspicion is that a series of computer malfunctions, and different speed readings made triggered the whole series of errors.

Now, what tickles my mind is this:

(Scenario) If all the data in normal flight, like speed and altitude could be verified and noted on a GPS, then when in an event like this, when the Airspeed and altitude meter fails, the speed and altitude still can be maintained  according to the GPS readings as well as the nose pitch and prevent a disaster like that?

Just a stone in the bush.....

[expat]

[quote]Well, after reading in a magazine about the crash of the French Airbus From South America to London, The suspicion is that a series of computer malfunctions, and different speed readings made triggered the whole series of errors.

Now, what tickles my mind is this:

(Scenario) If all the data in normal flight, like speed and altitude could be verified and noted on a GPS, then when in an event like this, when the Airspeed and altitude meter fails, the speed and altitude still can be maintained

[beaky]

Even if there is a reliable GPS readout, that's only groundspeed. At the FLs, where winds can exceed 100 kts, that could have very little to do with airspeed.
As far as multiple system failures go, if I remember correctly, it was determined that there may have been a pitot blockage (did the pitot heat fail also?), in which case even "steam gauge" backups would be useless.
Perhaps this was not the case, but in the event that you have more than one electronic airspeed display, and analog backup gauges, all fed from separate pitot probes... the question is: which one do we trust? While you're trying to decide, of course, the airplane is still flying, and things can get out of hand very quickly.

It's not easy to maintain flying speed in a heavy jet by only neeedle/ball and altimeter,"feel" or slipstream noise in the best conditions, and these poor souls were, apparently, in some nasty stuff as they tried to figure out what was going on. Even if they still had at least one reliable artificial horizon or some sort of A of A indicator, in turbulence in IMC it would take a miracle to avoid getting outside the speed envelope, in either direction. In smoother air, maybe they could have just set the trim for best glide (provided they had a reliable indicator of trim tab position) and use rudder only to keep the wings level (by monitoring the ball) until they descended into VMC, at which point they might have more options.

[The Ruptured Duck]

Didn't they fly into a thunderstorm? 

[JakesF14]

Thanks Guys, I never kept track of the wind speeds. Yeah they flew into a thunderstorm.

I learn every day more, and I appreciate all the comments.

Great stufff. I will stick to driving my car and flying virtual... for my own safety   :-)

[Rich H]

Some latest news...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8664127.stm

[Tyler012]

I can't imagine the feeling of shear terror the pilots must have felt when they realized even their backup gauges weren't transmitting data in IMC.