I just finished watching the "Crash of Flight 447" Nova show. It's very well done and presents a compelling case.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1685933496/

(It was 85%, 5-degrees.)

The fact that there were so many examples of 2 pitot tubes failing, and so many examples of pilots not going to 85%/5-degrees quickly is a smoking gun.

The idea that a big airliner can stall at 35,000 feet if its airspeed is 10 knots off seems nuts to me! But I never thought about it before....

Better training always helps when peoples' lives are on the line. But I wonder how realistic it is to expect that pilots will be able to cope with failure of so many systems at once. Supposedly there are many fighters that cannot be flown manually - they're aerodynamically unstable and need constant adjustment by their flight computers. With the push to make airliners more fuel efficient yet faster, and the limited airspeed windows at altitude that are already present, it seems like the automation problems will get more severe in the future.

:-(

IIRC, there's been talk of requiring GPS backups to help in cases like this. I guess the thinking was a Garmin in the cockpit might have helped, but given all the turbulence and the klaxxons and the flashing lights, who knows if they would have had the presence of mind to look at it. And there's the issue that GPS gives groundspeed, not airspeed, and if you're at 35,000 feet in a 150 mph headwind, well... :-/ (The FAA is going to be having planes use GPS for navigation, not airspeed.) So much for that.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Scott.
(Who doesn't get to see Nova on TV very often and will have to visit the web site more frequently.)