Russia's Disastrous Demo of their Superjet 100

[airboatr]

Tragic

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/10 ... ane-crash/

[DaveB]

Ee-gads..

ATB
DaveB

[Garry Russell]

Very sad...my thought to those concerned.

One slightly bright note

The figure of 50 aboard was put out by the Russians who didn't know that five had got off before the flight, can't imagine how they must feel

[airboatr]

Yes a few of those that got off for prayer time didn't make it back on before the last flight which opened up some spots for others who hadn't planned on getting a free ride.
Like Dave mentioned in your F35 thread, there always seams to be some sort of a trade off.

[Airspeed]

We would like to think that accidents would not happen like this any more.
Many Beaufort crews died before they discovered an elevator design error that plunged the aircraft into a non recoverable dive.
The Avro designer himself was killed when control cables were reverse - fitted, so designs were changed to avoid further errors.
Then the Comet tragedy as recently discussed on this forum.
If a country capable of space travel can still build an airliner that can be flown into a mountain, what can we expect of the F-35?
Is the world so profit - focussed that blunders go un - noticed?
Like the other contributors, my thoughts go to the families of the victims.

[Chris Trott]

I doubt this was a mechanical failure. Other news stories report the crew requested a descent from 10,000 to 6,000 feet. The impact is on a ridge that rises to over 7,000 feet. Sad fact of some of these countries is that their ATC is still not out of the 1950's in many ways and CFIT is an all-too-common occurrence because they clear aircraft to descend into terrain. EGPWS helps to avoid this, but it's not foolproof.

[Hot_Charlie]

Sad fact of some of these countries is that their ATC is still not out of the 1950's in many ways

Sad fact is that in some countries, aircrew are still not out the 1950s.

[Chris Trott]

Maybe, but this was supposedly a Russian flight crew unfamiliar with the area and with charts that are notoriously unreliable. That is where ATC is supposed to come in to "back stop" the crew.

[Airspeed]

Yes Guys,
I did quote a history of mechanical faults, but I was concentrating on the design faults.
My line of thought was that there could have been an on-board warning device that an obstacle was on the flight path. Is that too "Buck Rogers?"

[airboatr]

Terrian Avoidance System or TAS alert a pilot of an imminent collision into terrian Mike.
But sadly controlled flight into terrian stll happens.