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They grounded all planes of that type, so they suspect something other than pilot error...
At this point, likely, they simply don't know. It is an abundance of caution. It is not unlike the Chinese approach to Covid.
But it's a stark contrast to what happened after the two fatal 737-MAX crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. The FAA did not force a grounding and Boeing said they were awaiting proof that it was the fault of the hardware (and, in fact, promoted the notion that it was the inferior training practices of non-US carriers, despite that the pilot in the Indonesian crash had been trained in the US).
It was Trump, of all people, who grounded the fleet. The only time in US history that has happened.
My money is on a mass murder/suicide by one of the pilots, but China will keep that under wraps if that is the case. That type of a dive is rarely an accident. What type of catastrophic mechanical failure causes a plane to nose dive at that velocity?
No. Suicide/mass murder - that scenario is not crossing my mind. I just don't think a Chinese pilot would do that.
I think there might be a human error, or mechanical failure, or maybe (but probably least likely) insufficient maintenance.
Remember that US experts will assist the investigation, they all will also analyze the black box, so sweeping anything under the rug wouldn't be easy.
There is Boeing reputation at stake and they don't need another crisis with their planes.
A faulty mechanism on the rudder brought down two 737s of an earlier model back in the 1990s, one near Colorado Springs and the other near Pittsburgh. Those planes ended up diving almost straight down before running out of altitude. I'm not saying that this is the cause of the China Eastern crash, only that such a thing can happen without the pilots trying to have it happen.
You are not speaking of the 737-MAX then? Hm, I did not know that.
I do know that a prototype of the 737-MAX went through test flights before someone discovered a ladder had been left in the vertical stabilizer by factory workers. If it had fallen over and caught in the stabilizer jackscrew,
that plane would have most likely been lost as well.
Boeing went from an un-matched safety record to a terrible one after McDonnell-Douglas acquired them and started managing to shareholders instead of engineers. So it goes ...
I'm given to understand the MCAS is unique to the 737-MAX. It's a software kludge to compensate for the handling characteristics of the 737 with the giant engines bolted onto it. It also had a single point of failure, which I sure hope was fixed. Literally all it would take is one deflated party balloon catching on the external airspeed sensor to make the whole system go crazy.
The plane was cruising at 29,100 feet and began a sharp descent after 2:20 p.m., recovering more than 1,000 feet briefly
then resuming the dive before it lost contact.
Seeing the dash cam footage of the 737's final plunge, I get bad memories of Alaska Air 261. Horizontal ? stabilizer worm/drive gear wasn't properly maintained/greased. The gear's threads stripped and the top lock nut fractured and it went all the way past it's travel causing a catastrophic pitch issue. Pilots ended up valiantly flying the plane upside down after it went into a vertical dive. All killed when it crashed straight down into the Pacific off LA. With all respect to those who passed, I'm wondering if it was either stab. trim worm gear failure in a 737-800--- not a Max thank goodness. But from all the coverage of MCAS/the Max, it looked in diagrams like all 737 tails use the same worm gear arrangement that the mad dog (MD80) uses. Another idea is Suicide by one of the pilots...and suicide just doesn't make sense to any cogent human being or commercial pilot.
A faulty mechanism on the rudder brought down two 737s of an earlier model back in the 1990s, one near Colorado Springs and the other near Pittsburgh. Those planes ended up diving almost straight down before running out of altitude. I'm not saying that this is the cause of the China Eastern crash, only that such a thing can happen without the pilots trying to have it happen.
IIRC, both were engaged in final approaches and experienced rudder failures that occurred after pilot overreaction. This crashed occurred after reaching cruising altitude. Anything is possible at this point, but a plane nose diving from cruising altitude without even spiraling is suspicious at the very least.
No. Suicide/mass murder - that scenario is not crossing my mind. I just don't think a Chinese pilot would do that.
I think there might be a human error, or mechanical failure, or maybe (but probably least likely) insufficient maintenance.
Remember that US experts will assist the investigation, they all will also analyze the black box, so sweeping anything under the rug wouldn't be easy.
There is Boeing reputation at stake and they don't need another crisis with their planes.
An Egyptian pilot did it. A German pilot did it. Nationality and culture do not leave somebody immune to mental illness. I'm not saying that it's a slam dunk for suicide, but there aren't too many mechanical explanations for nose diving out of the sky.
I'm going with suicide. That thing didn't "fall" out of the sky. That thing was flown into the ground.
I'm saying 'no' on that. Reason(s): There are others in that cockpit who know how to fly, for one. Two, it wouldn't be going that fast,
That was my first thought when I heard a steep dive into the ground
Pilot, or co-pilot, wanted to commit suicide.
He/she should have just jumped off of at tall building and not killed over a hundred people with him/her
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