Comment by js2 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by js2 | Hacker News Reader

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I’m not a pilot. I’ve just read the Wikipedia page on this crash and the final report. I don’t know what is common or expected and planned for but I take your characterization to mean that you think that it’s not a significant problem.

There’s three pitot tubes. There were ADs issued over them icing over. Airbus replaced them multiple times with tubes from different vendors.

In the final report, the first major issue is “Temporary inconsistency between the measured speeds, likely as a result of the obstruction of the pitot tubes by ice crystals, caused autopilot disconnection and reconfiguration to alternate law.”

Icing over of pitot tubes seems more significant to me than I think you’re making it out to be.

It really highlights how terribly trained the pilots involved are - temporary inconsistency in measured speeds (there are still plenty of reasonable speed sources) in almost all other planes does not result in the plane crashing. Heck, my GPS can do groundspeed easily enough and you have basic pitch and power settings.

How did they not notice their altitude was climbing as they pulled the plane up - they got into a CLIMB rate of 7,000 feet per minute - that's STUPID! WHY climb like that? This has nothing to do with airspeed.

The stall alarm goes off 75 times!

They reduce power to idle for a bit??

It's total nonsense, anyone who has flown a single engine cessna for 200 hours or more would have been able to get out of this easily just based on stall buffet and stall alarms.

Or you underestimate the complexity of the situation and overestimate how a 200-hour Cessna pilot would have performed in that cockpit that night.

I'm not sure what accident you are talking about but the MCAS in the 737 Max overrode pilot input. The real problem was that pilots did not know that the MCAS existed, nor did they know how to disable it.

He's talking about AF447, which involved an Airbus.

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