Swiftair MD83 flying for Air Algérie crashed in Mali

[regi]

The Cockpit Voice Recorder of AH5017 is unintelligible, says the head of France's BEA, brought in to support the Mali crash investigation. The recordings were successfully restored, however the recording is not usable due to damage to the CVR unrelated to the accident sequence.

Based on the Flight Data Recorder a first trajectory of the aircraft has been established. After a normal departure from Ouagadougou, the aircraft reached cruise FL310 at 01:37Z 22 minutes after departure with an airspeed of 280 knots at the time. Two minutes later the speed decreased gradually, the aircraft began to descend gradually, the speed continued to decrease to 160 knots. The aircraft subsequently began a left turn and descended rapidly with changes in pitch and angle of attack. The last position recorded by the FDR at 01:47:15Z was at 1600 feet MSL, about 380 KIAS and a very high rate of descent.

engine trouble, bad fuel?

[andorra-airport]

engine trouble, bad fuel?

They tried to avoid a sandstorm. You don't want sand in your engines.

[JAF737]

engine trouble, bad fuel?

They tried to avoid a sandstorm. You don't want sand in your engines.

On the other hand, the chance of having a sandstorm at 31000ft is pretty...close to 0...

[sn26567]

On the other hand, the chance of having a sandstorm at 31000ft is pretty...close to 0...

Close to 0, but not zero! You could be surprised!

[JAF737]

On the other hand, the chance of having a sandstorm at 31000ft is pretty...close to 0...

Close to 0, but not zero! You could be surprised!

Could you please elaborate?
And perhaps surprise me, then.

[sn26567]

In this article, you can read about a dust storm originating in China that travelled for 13 days at altitudes between 26,000 and 32,500 feet.

[JAF737]

In this article, you can read about a dust storm originating in China that travelled for 13 days at altitudes between 26,000 and 32,500 feet.

Yep, indeed. A duststorm... Not a sandstorm.
Not really the same!

[airazurxtror]

Preliminary report of the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses.

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol.ah. ... h.5017.php

http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2014/ec-v140 ... 724.e1.pdf

http://www.bea.aero/docspa/2014/ec-v140 ... .e1.en.pdf

[sn26567]

In brief (for those who haven't the time to read everything), frozen sensors are the cause of the crash.