Page 22 - Flight Controls News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Effort. >> okay. les, this is for you. unless you want to weigh in. m.j. asks, the angle of the plane when it turned looks like it should have went west. or should have gone west. how did it start flying south? >> that's a great question. it's something that i think is confusing a lot of people. to me, i think what may have happened is if, indeed, there was a mechanical issue, it may have done something to begin the airplane's turn and may affect the flight controls. it's hard to see. that's part of the speculation. >> nick, this question is from catherine. she says would a plane crash in ocea...

>> reporter: if and when pieces of the plane are recovered, investigators will piece it together. this was done to the remnants of twa flight 800 in the late '90s, analyzing the fuselage, flight controls and wings would help investigators pinpoint a cause. many crucial parts of an aircraft like engine components are made of magnesium and one expert told us that in salt water magnesium can dissolve like an al a celt al a seltzer . there's also the grim task of recovering the bodies of passengers. the bodies should show signs of smoke inhalation, for example. expert say that work could take mont...

>> the pilots knew they had a serious problem. they knew the engine had failed, but they didn't know it had come off the airplane. there's no indication for that. >> look at this, look at this. blew up an engine. equipment. equipment. he blew an engine. [ bleep ] >> the leading edge slats which give the wing better lift during slow speeds during takeoff and landing are controlled hydraulically. now with no hydraulic power on the left side, the left slats retract back into the wing. >> which means he has less lift on that side than he had on the opposite side, so it wants to roll. >> an eyewitn...

Happens. >> we managed to come up with a wire bundle that was in fact involved in the lead event. >> the investigators identify microscopic points on two wires and determined that they were the first to experience a fault. but it's still unclear why they malfunctioned and how they caused the crash. >> the md-11 was one of the very earlier planes to have personal in-flight entertainment and so in the first class cabin area, this system drew a lot of power and on this type of airplane, it has individual power supplies for the cabin as well as the different parts of the flight deck. >> when the s...

What would have happened? would it glide to a calm stop or when it runs out of fuel, did it end up crashing into the sea in a violent way? >> we know that aircrafts glide. we saw that in the miracle on the hudson with sully sullenberger. that could be on the co-pilot. if a progressive failure of all the electrical systems occurred. that's not unprecedented. in 1996, a value jet out of miami took off. they had a fire on board down in the cargo hold. that in the ntsb report showed a progressive failure of flight controls and electronics. this is not without precedence. it could have happened. if...