Where the Sensors are Fly-by-Wire system partly responsible for AF-447 disaster, page 1

I found this very interesting article on the Times that says how the investigation is looking into faulty sensors made the computers fail and the fly-by-wire system could have prevented pilots from taking control of the plane.

Apparently faulty sensors have been an issue with A330 and A340 aircrafts and have been named as responsible of failures in a number of incidents with these planes,

www.timesonline.co.uk...

reply to post by carcharodon

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The FBW system works with the help of the computer. And so, when the computer fails the pilots will be able to have a manual control of the aircraft. But of course, it would be difficult controlling the large plane.

The FBW system works in a manner such that the pilot is not able to over ride the safe operating limit of the aircraft.

I'm a Boeing man, so I don't know a whole lot about Airbus FBW systems, however I'll attempt to answer... If the sensors begin to produce varying and incorrect data, then the computers will detect this and switch from NORMAL LAW to ALTERNATE LAW - which is what actually happened.

In Alternate Law...

• The airplane CAN be stalled in Alternate Law.
  
• A nose up command is introduced any time the airplane exceeds VMO/MMO to keep the speed from increasing further, which CAN be overridden by the sidestick.
  

www.airbusdriver.net...

en.wikipedia.org...

So no the pilots wouldn't of been prevented from doing much. However, if the pilots were still reading the same incorrect data, or the plane was already in trouble before it switched to alternate law, then the bad data may be a cause for the crash.

Can someone please tell these news agencies to hire aerospace professionals and stop reading aviation message boards, cherry picking the most sensational answers they can find? I recommend everyone to use Flight Global and Aviation Week as a news source...

[edit on 7/6/2009 by C0bzz]

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