Airbus REDUX , Could this have been what caused the other flight to go down?
 

This from Brent Stratton, a NWA pilot .........Now obviously on the A-330



Well, I'm sure you have all heard of the Air France accident. I fly the same plane, the A 330.


Yesterday while coming up from Hong Kong to Tokyo , a 1700nm 4 hr. flight, we experienced the same problems Air France had while flying thru bad weather.
I have a link to the failures that occurred on AF 447. My list is almost the same.
http://www.eurocockpit.com/images/acars447.php

The problem I suspect is the pitot tubes ice over and you loose your airspeed indication along with the auto pilot, auto throttles and rudder limit protection. The rudder limit protection keeps you from over stressing the rudder at high speed.

Synopsis;
Tuesday 23, 2009 10 am enroute HKG to NRT. Entering Nara Japan airspace.

FL 390 mostly clear with occasional isolated areas of rain, clouds tops about FL 410.
Outside air temperature was -50 C TAT -21 C (your not supposed to get liquid water at these temps). We did.

As we were following other aircraft along our route. We approached a large area of rain below us. Tilting the weather radar down we could see the heavy rain below, displayed in red. At our altitude the radar indicated green or light precipitation, most likely ice crystals we thought.

Entering the cloud tops we experienced just light to moderate turbulence. (The winds were around 30kts at altitude.) After about 15 sec. we encountered moderate rain. We thought it odd to have rain streaming up the windshield at this altitude and the sound of the plane getting pelted like an aluminum garage door. It got very warm and humid in the cockpit all of a sudden.
Five seconds later the Captains, First Officers, and standby airspeed indicators rolled back to 60kts. The auto pilot and auto throttles disengaged. The Master Warning and Master Caution flashed, and the sounds of chirps and clicks letting us know these things were happening.
Jerry Staab, the Capt. hand flew the plane on the shortest vector out of the rain. The airspeed indicators briefly came back but failed again. The failure lasted for THREE minutes. We flew the recommended 83%N1 power setting. When the airspeed indicators came back. we were within 5 knots of our desired speed. Everything returned to normal except for the computer logic controlling the plane. (We were in alternate law for the rest of the flight.)

We had good conditions for the failure; daylight, we were rested, relatively small area, and light turbulence. I think it could have been much worse. Jerry did a great job fly and staying cool. We did our procedures called dispatch and maintenance on the SAT COM and landed in Narita. That's it.

Do not buy this. Just "smells fishy" for several reasons.

First of all, its NOT going to be raining at 41,000 feet, no matter how strong an updraft there is. Just flew yesterday at 41,000 and temp was ISA standard, -57. These guys were supposedly flying in -50 degree temps. Everything is frozen at -50. Even if it dropped 10-20 degrees immediately, thats -40 to -30c, and its still going to be frozen.

Hot and humid in the cockpit "all of a sudden?" Come on guys, the airplane is cold soaked on a flight of 1600 nm, and the temps in the cockpit have to react from bleed air coming from the engines, to the packs, then through the ducts all the way through the A/C. Nothing is going to happen "all of a sudden" with regards to the temps. Humidity at 41,000 feet? Thats a good one...

Last of this is that I really doubt that NorthWest Airlines is going to allow anyone to start posting things like this on the internet.

Got to agree with Joeaksa. Been at this business all my adult life and rain at those temperatures just ain't gonna happen. All the weird things that have happened to Scarebus will be hard to avoid with the 787 if they ever get the thing to fly. Putting high speed airplanes together with composites and glue subjected to extreme temperature changes and other forces of nature won't work. I'll stay with rivets & metal . This new science is not far removed from bamboo & bedsheets used before all metal airplanes came along.

This story has been questioned by several NWA friends as well. Little things. It's Naha control, not Nara. Anyone that has ever flown thru there would know that. Like Joe, this one smells a little. I have seen 'sweeps' of moisture on the windsheilds in the tops, but I suspect that the heat of the windsheilds was turning the ice to water again.

The really sad part as well is that there has been a crash in the Cosmoros Islands with an A310, a cousin of the A330. The problem is that the flight launched from Yemen (full of insurgents) and was on it's way to these islands, also full of 'trouble' in the Indian Ocean.

This company A/C was on EU black list...!

If there actually is a "Brent Stratton" flying at NWA, wouldn't he be under discipline/suspension now? Like Joe says. If I were NWA's legal dept, I would make an example of any pilot who posted anything like this, for obvious legal and business reasons.

Well, it gets worse and worse the deeper you dig.

Found a Mark Stratton in San Diego whose profile on Linkedin says "Captain at NWA"... then you look deeper at his profile and something just does not fit. He shows that he graduated in 2008 from San Diego State. Lets see now, graduated in 2008, that makes him 23, and he is already in the left seat at NorthWest Airlines? I want some of what he is drinking!

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brent-stratton/6/75a/933

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Brent Stratton

Captain at NWA

Greater San Diego Area

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San Diego State University-California State University

1901 — 2008

My wife graduated last year and she is (I better not say) but > 2 X 23