http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31638822/ns/world_news-africa

Put MY butt in a 747!

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? Airbus are plenty reliable....tons of Boeings have crashed too.

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Yeah. But Boeings don't typically tend to break apart in flight, which seems like it could possibly be a burgeoning problem with Airbusses. Although this particular incident looks like it could simply be bad weather and not necessarily the planes fault.

- Peter.

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I sure hope its not a growing problem. Everyone is flying those things now.

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The pilots of both Airbus jetliners attempted to negotiate flying in bad weather...

...perhaps that is more of an issue than the structural integrity of those planes?

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If you're attempting to land on an island in bad weather, you may not be able to avoid it. Not like you can just divert across the ocean. However if your plane has a design flaw, like a weakness in the tail the means the tail will break under severe weather conditions, that is a problem. There are now three cases of Airbus tales coming off their plans. The American airlines crash in NY some years back. The Air France crash where the tail has been found floating a long way from the rest of the wreckage and the Air Carribes' which lost it's rudder, though thankfully not the whole tail and managed to get on the ground without loss of life.

And of course we don't yet know exactly what caused this Yemenia plane to go down.

Boeing has it's fair share of problems but nothing like such a spate of tail incidents that points to a possible serious structual problem with the basic design.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

I still rather fly on a nice American made Boeing, and not some EU Airbus.

Lately thats looking to be a good plan.

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it does give one pause concerning possible design issues with the Airbus. also, didn't Airbus offer some of the U.S. airlines a better "deal" than Boeing on some aircraft purchases? sometimes you DO get what you pay for....buy extra life insurance before boarding one of these babies......

51,900 hours on the one that went down. I wonder if that had something to do with it.

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Some of you guys are jumping to uninformed conclusions. The investigation thus far into the Air France crash points to a faulty speed meter. Any airplane will break apart if flown too fast, doesn't matter where it's made. And about this latest crash we don't really know what happened yet. From my news readings I remember more Boeing 737 crashes than anything else.

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uh, i think that airbus is using a lot of synthetic materials that aren't holding up. they're trying to save on weight, but..

(and no, i'm no "true believer" in boeing either, tho i believe their big problem was planes staying in service longer than they were designed for.)

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I've been looking at an aviation forum where the AF crash has been discussed a lot recently. Frankly the evidence is far to incomplete to indicate what really happened. However there have been a lot of problems associated with faulty speed sensors on Airbus planes recently, far more than on Boeing although there was one incident on a Boeing recently.

I had no idea just how little margin for error there is at high altitudes. FL350 etc. The coffin corner it's called. If the plane goes to fast or to slow at that height it becomes aerodynamically unstable and extreme buffetting occurs, similar to severe turbulence. I'm paraphrasing here but I'm no expert.

If a plane is too weak such buffetting can cause it to break apart. As I've pointed out three Airbuses lost their tails, or portions of their tails and there is concern that composite technology is not yet mature enough to handle the stresses concerned. Or that Airbus is not implementing it properly.

As I've said, while I'm aware Boeing has it's share of problems structural integrity does not appear to be one of them.

- Peter.

__________________
2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

What about that Qantas plane that recently blew a hole in its luggage compartment, wasn't that a 747? Also I remember some incident near Hawaii or involving Hawaiian Airlines where the plane blew a hole in the passenger cabin and a flight attendant got sucked out. It was probably a Boeing too.

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Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

Bottom Line: When it's your time, it's your time.

also, what goes up must come down.