Jetstar malfunction link to Air France Atlantic crash

[harvyk]

The air vector information is derived from the GPS or INS data being compared to the data provided by the pitot/static system and sent for AMDAR use, if the the Pitot/Static system is suspect then you have no way of determining the current air vector affecting the aircraft, so your approximate airspeed could have a margin of error of up to + or -150 knots.

You can guestimate it, you'd both need to know what your IAS was compared to your GPS speed at the time of failure, and then pray that no other factors change (eg jetstreams etc...).

 

[Mr Ed]

These bits of tube are over $90,000 a peice. Give or take a dollar. I would have thought at that price they would have anti icing devices and pretty well anything else.

 

[straitman]

These bits of tube are over $90,000 a peice. Give or take a dollar. I would have thought at that price they would have anti icing devices and pretty well anything else.

They do, but they are still designed and built by humans and therefore are subject to defects :!:

They also have design limits and maybe the situations encountered exceeded those limits.