The missing AirAsia plane was likely flying too slow when it encountered bad weather conditions, according to aviation experts.
Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320, went missing on Saturday morning while travelling from Indonesia to Singapore.
As the search operation resumed on Monday, speculation on what may have happened points to weather, speed and an older radar system.
Geoffrey Thomas, aviation expert and editor of airlineratings.com, spoke to several check captains and believes the pilot of the QZ8501 encountered difficult weather conditions but flew too slow in his efforts to avoid it.
“Pilots believe that the crew, in trying to avoid the thunderstorm by climbing, somehow have found themselves flying too slow and thus induced an aerodynamic stall similar to the circumstances of the loss of Air France AF447 to crash in 2009,” Mr Thomas said.The Air France AF447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
“The QZ8501 was flying too slow, about 100 knots which is about 160km/h too slow. At that altitude that’s exceedingly dangerous,” Mr Thomas said.
“I have a radar plot which shows him at 36,000 feet and climbing at a speed of 353 knots, which is approximately 100 knots too slow ... if the radar return is correct, he appears to be going too slow for the altitude he is flying at.”
Mr Thomas said this should not happen in an A320, a sophisticated aircraft, so it appears as though it’s related to extreme weather conditions.
“He got caught in a massive updraft or something like that. Something’s gone terribly wrong,” he said.
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