F-16 Sonic Boom Scramble

[CobraBob]

This comment wins the internet for today...

I second that motion!

 

[Weather Man]

F-16 intercept pilot stated the civilian pilot was slumped over the controls.

 

[03cobra#694]

F-16 intercept pilot stated the civilian pilot was slumped over the controls.

I heard that too.

 

[SHIFTYBUSINESS]

The alarm for decompression should give the pilot and copilot time to get their oxygen masks on. As soon as the alarm goes off the pilots should put their masks on. I don't see how this can be an issue these days. You have a couple minutes before the effects of low oxygen will incapacitate you.

 

[Blown 89]

Dumb questions.

So if the plane is "smart" enough to autopilot, why is it not "smart" enough to know it depressurized and reduce altitude?

That's a feature very few planes have. It's quite a bit harder to implement than following a programed set of coordinates. Hypoxia is a funny thing, you can't tell you have it and even if alerted your brain doesn't have the capacity to think through a solution to it. The smarter everyday YouTube channel did an interesting video on it a while back

 

[JAJ]

Dumb questions.

So if the plane is "smart" enough to autopilot, why is it not "smart" enough to know it depressurized and reduce altitude?

Pilots fly the altitude and the airway they're cleared to fly by ATC. They can't change either without approval from ATC - too big a risk of collision. The autopilot doesn't have any hands, so it can't operate the radio...

 

[Corbic]

Pilots fly the altitude and the airway they're cleared to fly by ATC. They can't change either without approval from ATC - too big a risk of collision. The autopilot doesn't have any hands, so it can't operate the radio...

Plane flew way off course without authorization, hence the F-16s being scrambled.

 

[Blown 89]

Pilots fly the altitude and the airway they're cleared to fly by ATC. They can't change either without approval from ATC - too big a risk of collision. The autopilot doesn't have any hands, so it can't operate the radio...

Not true. Plenty of planes will auto descend upon depressurization. The system automatically squawks an emergency code. The issue is measuring that pressure loss and getting down to a safe altitude in time. I don't know if it's even possible to measure oxygen levels in real time. I know the Garmin systems require pilots to answer prompts to determine if it needs to engage the EDM system but I don't know how it detects a problem.

It doesn't take long to suffer cognitive impairment from hypoxia. IIRC it's less than 15 or 20 seconds. Airliners take 3 minutes to descend from 35,000'. When Payne Stewart's plane crashed the pilots had their masks on and the oxygen valves were open so there's a theory that they didn't detect the issue in time. I've never flown anything that goes high enough to worry so take those numbers with a slight grain of salt.

 

[HEMIHUNTER]

The reporting was using words like PANIC!! CHAOS!! FEAR!! when describing reactions in DC.


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

Biden and Congress could have been in danger.

like we could ever be that lucky

 

[svtfocus2cobra]

Not true. Plenty of planes will auto descend upon depressurization. The system automatically squawks an emergency code. The issue is measuring that pressure loss and getting down to a safe altitude in time. I don't know if it's even possible to measure oxygen levels in real time. I know the Garmin systems require pilots to answer prompts to determine if it needs to engage the EDM system but I don't know how it detects a problem.

It doesn't take long to suffer cognitive impairment from hypoxia. IIRC it's less than 15 or 20 seconds. Airliners take 3 minutes to descend from 35,000'. When Payne Stewart's plane crashed the pilots had their masks on and the oxygen valves were open so there's a theory that they didn't detect the issue in time. I've never flown anything that goes high enough to worry so take those numbers with a slight grain of salt.

What I heard on the radio was that time drastically decreases to respond as you get higher altitude, which is a no-brainer for the most part, but above 30k ft it comes down to mere seconds you have to respond. They said when they approached Payne Stewart's plane mid-air the pilots reported that all the windows were iced over which was a dead giveaway as to what had happened and that decompression occurred, but nothing similar has been mentioned about this flight yet.

 

[L8APEX]

From Fox News article today.

"A pilot himself, John Rumpel told the newspaper that he had little information about what happened but suggested the plane could have lost pressurization, which led to the erratic flight path and crash. The Cessna Citation took off from Elizabethton, Tennessee, bound for Islip, New York, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The aircraft inexplicably turned around over Long Island and flew a direct path over Washington, D.C., before crashing in the sparsely populated town of Montebello, Virginia, around 3 p.m. Flight tracking sites showed the jet suffered a rapid spiraling descent, dropping at one point at a rate of more than 30,000 feet per minute before crashing in St. Mary’s Wilderness."

A decent of 30,000 FTP would be tricky unless you are missing a wing or the tail section. A sidewinder or a burst from the Vulcan cannon could help it achieve that.

 

[Corbic]

Women was 49 with a 2 year old...