A321 Crashes in France.

[peterb]

This is why I hate flying, you are powerless if something goes wrong just sat there.

But that is true of most forms of transport, rail or road or sea if you are a passenger. If you are the driver, you have slightly more control, but on the roads you are flying on the actions of others. If you are stationary in a line of traffic and a 40 tonne truck runs into you, there isn't a lot you can do about it.

Aviation is still one of the safest methods of travel, more people are killed on the roads in a week than dies in the Airbus. Air crashes seem worse because those deaths occur in one incident. Not that that would be any consolation to those affected by the Airbus accident - or those bereaved in road accidents every day.

Sea travel is also relatively safe for passengers, but again when an accident does happen, it affects many people.

Road travel is safer if you travel as a coach or bus passenger, rather than as a driver, but as with trains when an accident does happen, it may affect many people.

QUOTE=Ferral;3443629If we were meant to fly we would have been given wings[/QUOTE]

And if we were meant to use roads, we would have been given wheels!

[TheAnimus]

This is why I hate flying, you are powerless if something goes wrong just sat there.

Trains, buses....

[Phage]

Trains, buses....

Tubes (shudder)

[excalibur2]

H'mm it seems the black box is damage, looks like a redesign is necessary to make it stronger.

[peterb]

H'mm it seems the black box is damage, looks like a redesign is necessary to make it stronger.

The cockpit voice recorder is reported to have suffered some damage, although the nature has not been released. The relatively informed opinion is that there will still be useful information that can be recovered from it.

[TheAnimus]

Tubes (shudder)

Are you saying the drivers need to be sober?

[ik9000]

Are you saying the drivers need to be sober?

Driverless please! Then they can't keep going on strike/disappearing into the ether. Last night I was turfed off one train and stood on a cold platform waiting for a Southern Train to open its doors courtesy of "staff shortages - no driver available". After 10 minutes waiting we then gave up and had to take a different route changing twice to get a completely different station and finally completing our journey home over half an hour late with a £10 cab fare to ferry us the last part.

[peterb]

Driverless please! Then they can't keep going on strike/disappearing into the ether. Last night I was turfed off one train and stood on a cold platform waiting for a Southern Train to open its doors courtesy of "staff shortages - no driver available". After 10 minutes waiting we then gave up and had to take a different route changing twice to get a completely different station and finally completing our journey home over half an hour late with a £10 cab fare to ferry us the last part.

Well, its entirely possible, as the DLR has demonstrated for the last 20 or so years. However, there does need to be some human available to intervene in the event of a systems failure.

[ik9000]

back on topic - sounds like there were some Brits on board too

[Ferral]

Literally just heard on news that apparently a 7 month old British baby with Spanish mother (British Citizenship possibly) and a student from Manchester

[MrRockliffe]

Due to the use of solid state memory for black boxes, they're generally a lot easier to recover data from. I don't think it would have been a bomb. Airport security is quite strict these days, and I imagine it would be hard to get many things past security guards. Then again, having lived in Spain, I can comment on how laid back they are generally with security etc in the airports. Because of the way the debris is over a larger radius, it does suggest the plane broke up mid air before hitting the ground, but there would be a multitude of possibilities for why. Could be as a result of rapid depressurisation, or a loss of control of the plane, causing it to go into a dive and thus creating a force due to gravity that the plane couldn't withstand.

Whatever the cause, it is a very saddening story, and my thoughts are with the families and friends.

I hope whatever the reason, that the passengers didn't have to endure much pain and suffering.

[HalloweenJack]

BEA said they have useable data from the CVR

[ik9000]

BEA said they have useable data from the CVR

I hope that is the right acronym and that they weren't logging data on a VCR!

[Gerrard]

Unconfirmed reports that it sounds like one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit. Although that just raises more questions...

[excalibur2]

Unconfirmed reports that it sounds like one of the pilots was locked out of the cockpit. Although that just raises more questions...

Indeed...suicide?

[peterb]

And as was stated, these are unconfirmed!

The truth is


That no-one knows. Not even the accident investigators at this point. They will probably have a good idea in a few days, and will release a comprehensive report in a few months, when the investigation is complete, but until then the rest is just speculation.

back on topic - sounds like there were some Brits on board too

Point taken!

Although is discussion about driverless technology and aviation safety is probably more fruitful than speculation about the crash.
Sad about the British passengers, but in reality no sadder than for the other nationalities.

But that ideally shows what tribal creatures we are. A plane crash in the UK is perceived more serious than one in Europe, which in turn seems worse than one in Asia. And if our own nationals are involved, that again makes it worse.

In reality all are dreadful for the relatives of those who died.