Page 45 - Pilot Error News Today

Without a trace while heading from malaysia to china. its not the first time something like this has happened. cnns martin savidge has been looking at other plane disasters shrouded in mystery. >> reporter: even in our world of satellites and cell phone, giant airliners can disappear. at least for a while. the last was air france flight 447 in 2009. the air bus 330 with 228 people aboard vanished beyond radar on a flight from rio de janeiro from paris. >> translator: people who go on the planes ...

There is no sign of any wreckage. the passenger manifest included the names of two europeans not on the plane. both had their passports stolen in thailand in the past two years. the bbc reported the men using those passports purchased tickets together. because they were flying on to europe through beijing, they did not have to apply for a chinese visa and undergo checks. the lead investigative country will be determined by where the wreckage is found. but the u.s.ntsb has already dispatched a cr...

>> well, im beginning to think that its quite possible that there was something catastrophic that occurred during this flight. because there is no indication that the pilots made any sort of attempt to contact anyone by radio. and thats very unusual. either something catastrophic, like an explosion happened in cruise or there was some other large failure like the entire electrical system went out, where they were unable to broadcast. but the other possibility, of course, is pilot error. but i do...

Unusual. >> well, it is not unusual from the standpoint if you look at twa 100 and egypt air and alaska air, things can go wrong in the air very quickly. and that is why you need a very experienced crew aboard. we dont know what happened. this could be anything from terrorism to a mechanical malfunction. to pilot error. so well just have to wait and see. >> jim, in your experience what are the odds that this winds up with a surprise safe ending? >> well, i think it is -- the odds are certainly s...

Left kuala lumpur at 12:30 a.m. the red eye into beijing. air traffic controllers lost contact in or near vietnamese air space supposed to arrive at 6:30 a.m. and it never did. the plane is presumed to have crashed into the ocean. this would be only the second crash involving the 777. last july, an asiana flight crashed. they believe pilot error was to blame on that crash. this was early similar to the air france crash in 2009 killing all 228 people on board. investigators believe the speed sens...

Airways 777 crash landed in london several years ago. nobody was injured. they determined that ice formed in the fuel lines at high altitude depriving the engines of jet fuel. the crew was able to descend and put that plane down into heath row bit it also had rolls royce engines. however there was an air worthiness bulletin that went out and all airlines were to make the fix. were reminded of the 777 crash in san francisco last july. that was the first fatal crash involving a 777 in 18, 19 years...

That time, there have been 60 incidents, most minor. the first fatal incident the 777 had was last year, july 2013 at san francisco aircraft where an asiana airlines came in short of the runway and three people died. it was blamed on pilot error in that case, not a technical problem. there was a similar incident back in 2008 where a british airways plane came up short at heathrow. again, not technical problems. the question is what exactly happened here? these planes can fly for three hours on a...

Identified as stolen passports, and they could have faked passports, so there was a way to flag them in advance. thats what is disturbing as it apparently wasnt checked. >> mary, with your department of transportation background, in 2009, we had this air france plane disappear over the atlantic. there was no warning, no may day call. that turned out to be pilot error. here i dont have another plane, disappears without any may day. walk us through the possible explanations for that. >> ive worked...

To be or is there no pattern? >> you know, everything is a little bit different. but it is really kind of hard to say a pattern. sometimes it is a little bit of a technical problem compiled by pilot error or something else. there is usually a chain, not usually one thing that will bring an aircraft down.usually s that ends catastrophically. and we still dont know what is going to happen here. but you know, the air traffic control system is pretty robust. so you dont lose the sight -- a little do...

Preliminary report last week which said the plane had a tail wind of 21 miles per hour with gusts up to 28 miles per hour. they believe weather did play a role in the crash. we had aviation expert mike foye take a look. here are his thoughts. >> the pilot shouldnt have landed. i think thats what they are going to come out with. a heavy tail wind, tried to get down. they didnt have the skills to get outfit it and the airplane did crash. the good news is two people survived in that. its clearly go...