The South Atlantic Anomaly And The Disappearance Of Flt 447, page 1

reply to post by mikesingh

Though RAT provides emergency electricity needed to keep critical systems running, such as hydraulics, flight controls, and key avionics, it comes back to electrical power to run the systems. Now if there is EM interference like what this aircraft may have experienced, then all electronic systems would have gone on the blink, though the RAT may have still been working.

Now that we've described the various emergency equipment available to modern airplanes, I'd like to ask you about the SAA.

Particularly, from what I've read on it, it is a phenomenon that merely suggests the VA Belts dip lower than normal, due to some irregularity in the Earth's magnetic field flux lines in that particular region.

However, I seriously and truly doubt they EVER dip as low as 10-15 KM above the surface!!! (35,000 feet is slightly less than 7 miles, for comparison's sake).

AND....about a dozen or so other airplanes flew through the region that night...safely.

I hate to say it....too early to place blame but, I saw a study published by a meteorologist who used satellite WX data, and the track of the airplane, along with its position report times and ETA times that ATC had, combined with the time hacks of the WX images. Perhaps, and this is based on the data this guy put out, in my opinion perhaps the crew simply didn't divert widely enough around the worst spots in that cluster/line of thunderbumpers.

I have faced similar WX conditions....you can assess how densely packed they are (the intense cells) and sometimes it is just more prudent to accept a very wide deviation...usually results in only a few minutes extra time.

Of course, they were in a non-RADAR environment (for ATC purposes). A clearance to deviate off-track can be slow to obtain, especially using HF radio. Of course...there is always Captain's Emergency Authority. Depending on the amount of traffic in the area, if you suspect your deviation will result in a traffic conflict, you change altitude 500 feet. You announce on the Air-to-Air frequency your position and intentions. AND modern airplanes have TCAS, so you can see where everyone else is, within a range of 40 NM.

I think this may also just be a tragic accident....wrong place, wrong instant...in fastly changing and developing weather. Extreme turbulence, if it occurs in dry air, will not show up on the airborne WX RADAR.

EDIT: Here's the linky from another thread, provided by Harlequin

www.weathergraphics.com...

let me know if you need help deciphiring some of the arcane technical stuff...such as the Flight Plan and whatnot...

[edit on 6/6/0909 by weedwhacker]