Fifth Avenue Forum

Suicide by pilot?

Is it bad that this would be a best case scenario to me?

That cannot be excluded at this point. There are still plenty of possible explanations, including spatial disorientation or a mechanical problem. The investigators said the engines were running, and the aircraft appears to have been intact at impact, but it still could have been a control failure, for example.

One area where Boeing still has an advantage over Airbus is in the ultra-hot freighter market. Boeing recently opened up a new line for converting 737-800 NextGen models into freighters, and Boeing now has 150 orders for the 737-800BCF (Boeing Converted Freighter). Airbus has only sold 38 A330 freighters, and it doesn't offer a factory freighter version of any other model, although there are converted passenger versions of the A320 family. Meanwhile, Boeing has sold over 500 777 and 767 freighters.

https://simpleflying.com/boeing-convert ... ommitments

West Atlantic Cargo, a British cargo airline that among other businesses carries the Royal Mail, had one of its 737-400F freighters land so hard at Exeter Airport that it creased the fuselage and even stuck the doors closed. Doesn't look like those wings are straight any more, either. I'm thinking that one's a write-off.

Re: Sriwijaya Air

The memory modules for the CVR still have not been found, so we don't know what was happening on the flight deck. There are some leaks about the FDR data. Some news sites are reporting that the aircraft was having troubles with its autothrottles, and it appears that the crew was trying to resolve the problem as the aircraft was climbing out of Jakarta. Unequal thrust from the engines could cause a plane to turn or even roll onto its side and descend abruptly, if it’s not handled properly. But unfortunately I have a hard time seeing how a sticky autothrottle for one engine could cause this crash in the absence of compounding crew error. There have been prior incidents where a crew gets fixated on faulty automation and "forgets" to fly the plane, which leads to a loss of control that the crew then fails to property deal with. I could see something like this happening here:

1. A sticky autothrottle leads to differential thrust settings, which starts the 737 slightly rolling/turning to the side with a higher throttle setting. This could explain why the flight was drifting off course.

2. Rather than disengaging the autothrottle system (which would be the first checklist item for any problems with the system), the pilots attempt to troubleshoot the issue with the autothrottle still engaged. While occupied with that, they fail to appreciate that the aircraft is still increasing its bank angle.

3. The increasing bank angle eventually causes the aircraft to roll over and enter a dive.

4. The crew, perhaps surprised by the rollover, fails to properly respond to and recover from the dive, and the aircraft impacts the ocean.

Not gonna lie, this is a little scary:

They’ve had plenty of time to practice on MS Flight Simulator.

They’ve had plenty of time to practice on MS Flight Simulator.

Way to rub salt into the wound, DG.

I can sort of understand the stick-and-rudder errors, but missing checklist items has nothing to do with reps.

It's amazing what has happened to aviation. In a year we went from airlines not being able to get pilots and unprecedented demand for transport pilots to now more than half of the world's pilots not currently flying.


Survey Reveals That Just 43% Of Pilots Are Employed And Flying
https://simpleflying.com/pilot-survey-4 ... nt-flying/

I have a friend who flies for one of the big shipping companies and he was made fun of by his former Air Force buddies for taking a job flying cargo instead of passengers.

Guess he had the last laugh.

Cargo is killing it. Everyone else in aviation, not so much.

I'm not sure I'd say either is a better job. Cargo pilots are more likely to fly at night, so if you're not a night owl that might be a problem. Unless you fly for someone like FedEx with regular routes, the schedule for a cargo pilot will likely be more variable. Cargo pilots don't get free flights for their families unless their airline also has a passenger operation. Also, they have to make their own coffee and heat their own meals. On the other hand, cargo pilots never have to deal with passenger bullcrap (in all its forms), their side of the industry is less vulnerable to economic swings, and cargo pilots generally get more days off than passenger pilots. The freight dogs also tend to see more of the world with one-off charter flights and flights to more out-of-the-way destinations. For example, Anchorage isn't a very busy passenger airport, but it's a major transfer hub for cargo flights between Asia and North America. There have been periods during the pandemic where Anchorage has been the busiest airport in the world.

Well, to the extent cargo pilot is a job in 2021 it's certainly better than a furloughed passenger hauler.

But some of the best YT aviation channels focus on cargo routes. I think every in-cockpit video of an arrival into Quito I've ever seen had been a cargo flight.

It looks like the Penguins have replaced Miami Air (which went bankrupt) with iAero Airways as their charter carrier. A charter iAero 737-400 (Swiftflight 3306) took off today from Pittsburgh and landed an hour later at Republic Airport on Long Island. That's pretty much guaranteed to be the Pens, because Republic is the airport of choice for NHL teams flying into play the Islanders.

Re: Sriwijaya Air

The maritime search for the CVR's memory unit is still ongoing. On February 2nd, the chairman of Indonesia's KNKT (National Transportation Safety Commission) said at a press conference that reports distributed by the media about a possible autothrottle malfunction causing asymmetric thrust are wrong. However, the KNKT has sent five pieces of debris, including the autothrottle unit, to the USA and UK for further examination, and he said the KNKT wants to find out why an autothrottle parameter changed.

Oops. A Delta 717 went for a little off-roading at PIT.

These pilots must be really, really rusty.

Anybody has any experience with Southern Airways Express (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Airways_Express)? Despite its name, PIT is apparently serviced by them.

I just found out they service a miniscule airport about 80 minutes from my house, and they offer flights to Dallas from $39/one way. (Our main airport serves primarily executive travelers, and so even though Dallas is about 45-minute flight, you still have to pay often $400 or more for round-trip).

Anybody has any experience with Southern Airways Express (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Airways_Express)? Despite its name, PIT is apparently serviced by them.

I just found out they service a miniscule airport about 80 minutes from my house, and they offer flights to Dallas from $39/one way. (Our main airport serves primarily executive travelers, and so even though Dallas is about 45-minute flight, you still have to pay often $400 or more for round-trip).

I'm on the approach path for PIT when they're landing on the 28 runways, and I hear Southern Airways Express flights go over my house pretty often, but I've never flown them. They are a contractor for the Essential Air Services program, which gives federal subsidies to fly into smaller, rural airports. In PA they offer flights from PIT to places like Lancaster, Morgantown, and Bradford. I believe most of their fleet comprises the Cessna 208 Caravan, which is a single-engine, unpressurized, nine-passenger turboprop. The Caravan is basically the aircraft equivalent of a commercial van. It would be a no-frills flight (and no lavatory, so hit the restroom before boarding) and might be a little loud, so I'd bring some earplugs.

The Delta 717 that slid off the runway last week at PIT flew a ferry flight back to Atlanta on Monday and went back into revenue service later than evening. Nice to see there was no serious damage.

Anybody has any experience with Southern Airways Express (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Airways_Express)? Despite its name, PIT is apparently serviced by them.

I just found out they service a miniscule airport about 80 minutes from my house, and they offer flights to Dallas from $39/one way. (Our main airport serves primarily executive travelers, and so even though Dallas is about 45-minute flight, you still have to pay often $400 or more for round-trip).

I'm on the approach path for PIT when they're landing on the 28 runways, and I hear Southern Airways Express flights go over my house pretty often, but I've never flown them. They are a contractor for the Essential Air Services program, which gives federal subsidies to fly into smaller, rural airports. In PA they offer flights from PIT to places like Lancaster, Morgantown, and Bradford. I believe most of their fleet comprises the Cessna 208 Caravan, which is a single-engine, unpressurized, nine-passenger turboprop. The Caravan is basically the aircraft equivalent of a commercial van. It would be a no-frills flight (and no lavatory, so hit the restroom before boarding) and might be a little loud, so I'd bring some earplugs.

If it saves me $300+ on one round-trip, I'll gladly take a plane with no bathroom.

Plus, at this point, I'd do anything to stick it to American. Apparently, they have been holding the local XNA airport hostage. They claimed they would be ready to cancel all their connections the minute XNA invites Southwest (which would otherwise bend over backwards to come, because XNA is currently one of the most expensive airports thanks to Walmart and Walmart vendors business travelers).

A flight from nearby Boone County Airport to Dallas is about two hours (Caravans aren't very fast, either), which isn't all that bad. When might you be flying? The only thing that would give me pause about flying with Southern Airways Express is that Caravans aren't equipped with very sophisticated anti-icing equipment, if any such equipment is even fitted at all. They also aren't pressurized, which means that they top out at around 10,000 ft because everyone needs to be able to breathe. That means Caravans have a limited ability to fly over bad weather and therefore have to be scrupulous about flying around it. Normally, that might not be a problem for a flight from Arkansas to Texas, but things have been a unusually frosty down there this winter. Icing is no joke for any aircraft, but that especially goes for smaller ones.

If this would be a trip later in the spring or summer, then I wouldn't have a problem.

A flight from nearby Boone County Airport to Dallas is about two hours (Caravans aren't very fast, either), which isn't all that bad. When might you be flying? The only thing that would give me pause about flying with Southern Airways Express is that Caravans aren't equipped with very sophisticated anti-icing equipment, if any such equipment is even fitted at all. They also aren't pressurized, which means that they top out at around 10,000 ft because everyone needs to be able to breathe. That means Caravans have a limited ability to fly over bad weather and therefore have to be scrupulous about flying around it. Normally, that might not be a problem for a flight from Arkansas to Texas, but things have been a unusually frosty down there this winter. Icing is no joke for any aircraft, but that especially goes for smaller ones.

If this would be a trip later in the spring or summer, then I wouldn't have a problem.

I will not fly until I get vaccinated. Plus DFW is not that important destination for me in terms of personal travel - so it's indeed at least the summer when I'll be using this option. I guess at this point it's more the thought "I'll be able to stick it to evil American" that matters to me!

(Though I have a bunch of friends who travel to DFW for business or to visit relatives - and they all were quite happy when I shared my new discovery with them...)