Page 3 - Control Cables News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

I don't think something like this would rattle him. it was a pretty typical flight even though there was bad weather. i am leaning toward there being some kind of other mechanical issue that could have been enduced from the weather they were flying through. >> which means the pilot himself would have been fighting his own plane to keep it flying. >> right. and one of the problems with the fly by wire airplanes, i was speaking with some commercial airline pilots today who fly the a320, if it ices over you don't have reliable information. there are things you can to the do. the airplane will not...

Through the control cables, put the airplane down. so i'd be real hesitant to focus on the fire. but the big question is going to be how is that airplane able to fly for another five hours after the original sequence. >> mary, when a plane does run out of gas on auto pilot, how far can it glide? >> well, it can glide very far. in the previous accidents where that has happened, both the payne stewart and the helios, they responded differently. in helios one engine ran out of fuel, the other was flying still and went for ten more minutes. that continued to fly and it did have a glide pattern. bu...

Once it was there they got on their masks, contacted atc after they stabilized the airplane. unfortunately the fire burned through the control cables, put the airplane down. so i'd be real hesitant to focus on the fire. but the big question is going to be how is that airplane able to fly for another five hours after the original sequence. >> mary, when a plane does run out of gas on auto pilot, how far can it glide? >> well, it can glide very far. in the previous accidents where that has happened, both the payne stewart and the helios, they responded differently. in helios one engine ran out o...

Years. it's, you know, a fairly well-known plane. so just piecing together statistically what typically happens in a general aviation flight. >> and mary, you've got a couple of eyewitnesss, including a young lady who was shopping across this highway, noticing that the pilot seemed to make a turn there. again, putting that as a part of the list that you just named, it leads you to believe that the pilot was still in control of the aircraft and not unconscious, for example. >> right. and being able to make a turn, you know, another thing that can happen on small planes that can lead to a crash ...