Sala plane found

I agree they are two completely different operations, the second of which wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for private funding. The authorities could have put this matter to rest ages ago, if they had undertaken the second operation.

 

The authorities did. The search and rescue operation ended and then the authorities drew up a search location which was divided in two grids, one half of the grid was covered by the official boat the other half was covered by the private boat.

The search for the wreckage has taken place as quickly as can be expected. A search vessel with the correct equipment doesn't just sit in the English channel waiting around .It has to be brought in.

 

So terrible but at least their families can now take them home and give them a proper funeral.

 

100% correct. Their was a bloke on the radio from the authorities and one from the crowd funded recovery team and both explained the way the process worked.

 

The rescue operation ended on 24 January and the search for the wreckage didn't begin until 3 February. It has clearly been instigated by shipwreck hunter David Mearns, once the necessary funds have been raised, after which the AAIB got on board. It simply wouldn't have happened otherwise.

 

That's simply not true.

The search and rescue operation is a totally different thing to a search operation by the AAIB.

The air accident investigation branch are not a search and rescue team, they're an investigation body. They investigate ALL air accidents not just ones where the family have paid them to

 

I still don't think the wreckage would have been looked for without private funding.

 

If the plane is still relatively intact and the pilot is still in his cockpit. Would it be possible that he tried to do a ditching manoeuvre and not been able to get out of the plane?

 

A few thoughts. In the image released the door appears to be open on the plane. Could that mean somebody opened it and either left or tried to leave the plane? Or is it simply the result of the impact?

If the plane was ditched that usually indicates that the pilot knew of a problem. There was no distress call made which makes that seem unlikely.

The two things above could suggest that the pilot was incapacitated somehow and that caused the plane to go down without any radio contact. If only one body is inside the plane and the door is open does that suggest an attempted escape by the passenger?

They say MOST of the wreckage has been found intact. Only most. Does that point to a catastrophic failure of a component or is it simply that the impact caused separation?

 

We’ll have to wait until the outcome of the AAIB investigation, but probably the most plausible explanation I’ve seen is from a pilots forum.

They were saying that the request to drop from 5000ft, a normal flying height for that type of aircraft, to 2500ft would most likely be because of a build up of ice on the wing. This would be very difficult to spot in the dark. Reducing height takes the plane into warmer air and would melt the ice. It was also stated that a build up of ice could cause that type of plane to flip due to the aerodynamics of the wing being altered.

But, more pertinently, several said that the altitude sensor for this particular plane was on the wing and was susceptible to freezing. This would give a false altitude reading, meaning that the plane may have already been at a much lower level than the 5000ft the pilot thought he was at. It would have been impossible to see the surface of the sea due to the darkness - hence no mayday call and the immediate disappearance from radar.