Lesson to all to keep your seatbelt fastened for the entire flight.
The airlines don’t give these instructions for the fun of it
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I remember as a child being warned about “air pockets”, which could cause a sudden drop like that. I’ve never experienced one and I’m not really sure what they are, but what happened sounds like what I was warned about.
I know all about them. Some years ago I had just come back from a toilet break on a Cathay flight to Paris and hadn’t put my belt back on. We suddenly hit some unexpected turbulence and I got thrown out of my seat and whacked my head on the overhead bins. One of the drinks carts ended up bouncing into the middle seats and there were plates and cutlery scattered throughout the cabin. I always wear my belt at all all times including sleeping except for when o go to the bar or shower on Emirates.
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Absolutely terrifying.
Why did it drop so suddenly if the engines were still on. Surely it glides for 3 seconds???
My guess would be autopilot suddenly dropping out doesn’t just lead to an aircraft maintaining stable flight.
No idea on the gauges, but gusts are a thing. Probably a large gusts leading to stall or something like that.
Could be something similar to an Airbus ADIRU issue that happened quite a few years ago.
Of course Boeing’s systems are different, but there will be something equivalent to the ADIRU.
Having watched software development trends move from quality control (Y2K) to continuous improvement (I.e. pumping out half-tested changes in fortnightly sprints), I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the result of an untested ‘edge case’.
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You would have a tight sphincter until landing after the drop and the pilot saying his instruments dropped out. Pilot probably could have left that out.
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What about the bit where the guy was stuck to the roof!
People pay lots of money to go in the vomit comet.
He got it as a free extra in his flight!
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I was on a domestic Aus flight years ago where there was a fairly strong gust, everyone was still strapped in, but very sudden change in vertical acceleration which would have thrown everyone around if not strapped in.
When you fly over the Andes they make everyone put seatbelts on for the bit across the top, as the chances of gusts coming off the top of the mountains are increased.
Only rumours so far but the chat amongst the Qantas crew at work. currently though is that there was a complete computer reset mid flight which is a very scary prospect if true.
They are obviously awaiting the findings but some very worried pilots out there currently as it could mean another serious Boeing flaw requiring recalls.
As to QF72 I’ve met the FO a couple of times over the years and he still gets TV/Media requests now but he has declined and has moved on from it long ago
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There was an issue with the 787 mission computer software that required operators to restart the system periodically, otherwise it could crash as rumoured on this flight.
Now that bug was fixed 5 or so years ago, if Latam haven’t installed it yet, then they need the riot act read.
This one was 248 days of being powered on, but there was also another issue after 22 days IIRC.
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I won’t be getting on any Boeing planes soon, if I can help it.
The dreamliner 787 is among the safest planes ever to fly iirc?
No smoking pls…
Highly recommend this video about the SAAB Gripen , it gives an awesome insight into modern fast jet aviation.
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I remember we did check stress on Gripen back in 1999.
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