because there s an awful lot of things if it s an electrical fire, for example, you can get arc temperatures and electrical short somewhere between 7,000 degrees fahrenheit and as much as 16,000 degrees fahrenheit. the electrical component of the fire acts as an ignition source for things around it. swissair 111 being an example. my lar insulation in the overhead had literally caught on fire after being ignited by the electrical short. the crew wasn t aware of it and they were running the cockpit smoke checklist. in every single case where there s been a fire like that, the crew s been able to communicate with air traffic control to let them know what the situation was. in miami in 1996. the cargo compartment fire. the crew didn t know the fire was there until it burned through the floor of the passenger cabin. once it was there they got on their masks, contacted atc after they stabilized the airplane. unfortunately the fire burned
if you put a marble in a bowl it comes to a stop. that s what an airplane will do if it s disturbed seek back to its trimmed air speed. this very well could have flown with no auto pilot inputs at all which would also explain a much further left turn than would have been on auto pilot when it passed the last programmed way-point it would have just continued on the same ground track it was on until it ran out of gas. that s why i think the auto pilot was out. the two things, the pitch changes and the fact that the headings swung around as far down to the southwest as it did, very likely scenario that that could have happened and all communications systems, transponder, radios, acars, if there was some sort of problem with an electrical fire in that center pedestal area or supply for those things that would have been knocked out. which we may very well have had a zombie airplane flying across the country, aka payne stewart s crash. bill, i don t think you buy this theory, do you? fir
it connotes a sinister as peck to it. i prefer to call it a ghost plane. but we have seen things like this before. i know you guys have been talking about helios from 2005. that s a classic example of a pressurizati pressurization issue where the crew didn t realize what was happening fast enough to deal with it. in that circumstance, the airplane just once the pilots passed out, kept going to its destination, athens, went into orbit at altitude, and it too crashed after it ran out of gas. the thing here is, with all of the radical maneuvers up front, and the obvious turn that had to occur to put it on this direct south heading, that argues for something else. and in terms of a fire, i ve studied a lot of fire accidents. and literally every single one that has resulted in the
airplane subsequently crashing after a known in-flight fire, it happens relatively quickly. because there s an awful lot of things if it s an electrical fire, for example, you can get arc temperatures and electrical short somewhere between 7,000 degrees fahrenheit and as much as 16,000 degrees fahrenheit. the electrical component of the fire acts as an ignition source for things around it. swiss air 111 being an example. my lar insulation in the overhead had literally caught on fire after being ignited by the electrical short. the crew wasn t aware of it and they were running the cockpit smoke checklist. in every single case where there s been a fire like that, the crew s been able to communicate with air traffic control to let them know what the situation was. in miami in 1996. the cargo compartment fire. the crew didn t know the fire was there until it burned through the floor of the passenger cabin.
but we have seen things like this before. i know you guys have been talking about helios from 2005. that s a classic example of a pressurization issue where the crew didn t realize what was happening fast enough to deal with it. in that circumstance, the airplane just once the pilots passed out, kept going to its destination, athens, went into orbit at altitude, and it too crashed after it ran out of gas. the thing here is, with all of the radical maneuvers up front, and the obvious turn that had to occur to put it on this direct south heading, that argues for something else. and in terms of a fire, i ve studied a lot of fire accidents. and literally every single one that has resulted in the airplane subsequently crashing after a known in-flight fire, it happens relatively quickly.