



Source: Defense News

Comments     Threshold


RE: Negative Dynamic Control
By Solandri on 12/16/2011 12:14:14 PM , Rating: 5
According to the report, he was at over 50,000 feet when the oxygen generator cut out and the plane lost pressure. At that altitude and pressure (about 1/10th sea level pressure), even breathing 100% oxygen you're having to cope with less than half the oxygen you get at sea level (equivalent to breathing unassisted at about 18,000 feet). Without supplemental oxygen, you'll be unconscious within 10-15 seconds.

It sounds like he did the correct thing in those seconds - point the plane down so he could get to an altitude where he'd have enough oxygen to stay awake. But the rest of the flight reads like he fell unconscious (little to no input to the controls), and only woke up a few seconds before the crash (7.5g recovery maneuver). It really does seem like a whitewashing by blaming the pilot for failing to do anything while he was most likely unconscious.

RE: Negative Dynamic Control
By Reclaimer77 on 12/16/11, Rating: -1
RE: Negative Dynamic Control
By voodoochile123 on 12/16/11, Rating: -1
RE: Negative Dynamic Control
By voodoochile123 on 12/19/11, Rating: -1
By inperfectdarkness on 12/18/2011 5:22:12 PM , Rating: 3
this. as a flyer myself, i've done altitude chamber testing, and i can personally vouch for the effects of hypoxia on a person at 30,000 feet (chamber pressure). considering i was breathing 100% oxygen for 20-30 minutes prior to this, the argument for hemoglobin being able to compensate for the lack of o2 is simply hogwash.

it's one thing if the pilot is performing a 9-g maneuver and blacks out & noses the plane into terrain. it's quite another if he's flying a fairly benign profile at 50,000' and the same thing happens. FL 500 is very, very close to the altitudes that u2's fly at...and i can also speak to the dangers of hypoxia on u2 pilots whose oxygen systems have malfunctioned. TUC (time of useful consciousness) at 50,000 feet is less than 10 seconds. 10 seconds is next to non-existent when you don't even instantly recognize your own hypoxia; especially when you're tasked with 1. trying to correct the oxygen deficiency, 2. trying to lose altitude so you can increase your TUC or breathe normally on cabin pressure, 3. task-saturated, which further reduces the useful duration of oxygen (resting will increase your TUC, while vigorous activity will reduce it).

i really do smell a cover-up here. sad. how many more pilots and f-22's (which we already have fewer than we need) will we have to lose before the real issues are fixed? yes, pilot error is a factor in a majority of mishaps (fatal or otherwise)...yet this still smacks of quite a bit more than the USAF is letting on about.

