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Any stress is inversely proportional to the amount of fuel you have.
From what I’ve read it was almost certain due to the weather in the area at the time. A Hawaiian A330 also hit turbulence and a few of their pax sustained injuries.
Interesting. So possible a quite different scenario to the Qatar Dreamliner of a couple of weeks back?
Yes, very different. In this case (if it turns out to be true), microbursts are incredibly powerful and have been known to bring down jetliners before.
Which really fits in with my comment about the last event. The passengers are unlikely to have the slightest idea at the time, though the proximity of the media tends to bring all sorts of imagination to the fore.
It’s difficult to say exactly what happened, as the FR24 data is somewhat selective in what it tells you. Ground speed and vertical speed are really the output in this equation. Wind speed and direction, IAS, and pitch attitude are input, and without them you can reach a conclusion that’s 180º out from what happened.
One of the indicators of a poor (or perhaps inexperienced) pilot is the inability to pick the right time.
This possibly needs some explaining. During many phases of flight, but especially the early part of a departure, there are many things happening, either at the same time, or in quick succession. There’s the obvious, of multiple pitch and speed changes, clean up, probable low altitude restrictions. For the most part, the pilot flying takes care of all of that. The support pilot watches to make sure they all happen, enacts the calls for configuration and power changes, and takes care of ATC. That, in turn can lead to head down moments in the FMC whilst their instructions are converted to something useful. The more ‘other’ stuff that the support pilot has to do, the less time he has to keep an eye on exactly what is going on with the aircraft. The mark of a good/experienced support pilot is not just the ability to this ‘other’ stuff, but keeping the priorities in the correct order. This can mean giving ATC an ‘unable’ response, or perhaps asking/telling the flying pilot for the a/p. Conversely, a pilot who is manually flying, will often engage the a/p if he sees his support becoming overloaded.
Another reason I’d like to see the IAS trace. If they’d lost a bunch of IAS due to increasing tailwind, you’d wonder how they had enough performance to hit that much g.
Interesting comment. You’re quite correct, but do we have any idea of what was actually said? Reminds me of a very nasty night in HK. We were in a queue of aircraft at the holding point, and the weather was appalling. We had decided that we’d go as far as the runway, as that would let us point the radar into the departure direction for a look, but were already mostly decided on not going. There was a 747 freighter, and a 777, in front of us in the queue. The 747 took off, and shortly thereafter, reappeared on the tower frequency with a comment that was more or less “all aircraft at the holding point, do not take off. Dangerous wind shear.“
Christchurch is a long way south of most of the routes, and I don't recall being used all that often. Auckland sometimes, but mostly it was the islands to the north. Nadi, Samoa are more likely to be in the plans than NZ.
Presumably NOU would be in play also?
simpleflying.com
Yes, though not a preferred option. Ground handling was a big issue.
I don't think it was ever frequent, but yes, it's certainly been there a few times. Brisbane is often viable around that time, and is far preferable.
Latest, though unconfirmed, is that the NTSB are looking at their flap retraction timing.
I only ever did that flight in the 380, and had forgotten about the 747 services.
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