In reference to the Air France crash shouldn't planes have an analog backup system?

Question

Alright from preliminary data from the Black Box from the Air France that crashed 2 years ago in the Atlantic the computer was giving faulty information. Shouldn't planes that are computer controlled have Analog back up systems like Artificial Horizon, Altitude and Air Speed independent of the computer should the system fail as suggested on Air France?

If you think about it a plane that is computer only and the power goes out which happened to a Swiss Air flight off Canada or inaccurate readings; wouldn't Analog back ups give the pilots a better chance of recovering a plane in distress than flying blind with whacked out computer information? And is there any device that is being studied on that can help a Pilot flying in the Black night sky, feel or see or indicate that the plane is more than 45 Degrees left or right to prevent the plane from rolling over or going into a dive or step climb? Or do planes have such a system other than the shaking of the control stick?

Answer 1

Oh no, computers are great, they can do everything; pilots are just a**holes that get in the way.



Now you know why us old farts aren't really enamored with glass and boxes.

Answer 2

Perhaps it has gone quiet because people have become bored of it or the media figures they don't have anything new for the Air France plane crash. Also there doesn't appear to be a "period of plane crashes". Plane just crash whenever. It hasn't become more frequent but it actually has become less frequent over the years. Why do planes still crash? How come we haven't invented cold fusion? Why can't we build guns that never run out of ammo? Because simply put, we humans may be smart, but we're neither perfect or gods. We make mistakes and things do happen. I've watched many air crash investigation reports and they seem to know what they're talking about. They usually draw their information from the official NTSB report so they are quite accurate. However, the media gets all confused most of the time and makes conflicting reports. I usually just compare all media sources to find a consensus and when the official report comes out I trust that is the most accurate source out there above the media.

Answer 3

Current evidence does not indicate any failure of the computers on AF 447. There was trouble with probes that are used to determine airspeed, but they are analog devices already, and the trouble was not linked to their analog or digital nature, it was probably just icing from the weather.



In poor visibility, instruments are mandatory in order to determine the configuration of the aircraft. Human senses are completely unreliable under these conditions, and no amount of practice or experience can change that … it's a consequence of human physiology. That's why pilots learning to fly by instruments (all airline flights are flown by instruments) are extensively trained to trust only their instruments and not rely on sensations.



If anything went wrong with the instruments, these pilots would have no idea of the aircraft's speed or attitude, for the most part. Another possibility is that the instruments were working, but the pilots ignored them, which would be a serious pilot error. All the data hasn't been analyzed yet, so we'll see.



The current evidence seems to indicate that the pilots lost situational awareness, and this was complicated by instrument failures and constant alarms and automation that further confused them. They managed to stall the aircraft (possibly through inappropriate reaction to the circumstances), and it remained stalled all the way to impact with the ocean below.

Answer 4

Regulation states that all commercial aircraft has to have a backup instrument system.

These systems are supplied from their own probes and runs of backup battery power; they are separated from the normal system to ensure the integrity of the backup. Exact design of system varies from aircraft model to aircraft model. The basics are the same: If the primary systems have failed the pilots are to use this last resort.

Pilots are taught to discard their own senses and look at the instrument. This is due to basic human anatomy. Without visual references the human body is really easy to trick into thinking that it’s in a different attitude than it’s actually in.

Due to the fact that pilots so relies on their instruments they are vital. There is a recorded accident with older generation of aircraft (mechanical, not computerized) where ground crew covered the inlets for the sensing systems with tape for aircraft cleaning and then forgot to remove the tape. The flight crew experienced faulty indications and the aircraft were lost.

When it comes to the electronic flight control system they are built to keep the aircraft from entering unsafe conditions. They operate with different levels of safety depending on how badly the aircraft is malfunctioning. There is more than one system and if one system detect a fault in the other it will let the pilots fly the aircraft without the computer restricting the pilots from entering an unsafe flight condition.

The problem is usually not the computers, as mentioned earlier there are backups and redundant system for all the vital systems that are necessary to keep the aircraft in the air.

The most common fault in aircraft accidents is a combination of small failures, bad weather and pilot overload (stress) with result in human errors.

Answer 5

The Swiss Air flight was an analogue aircraft.



All jets have redundant and independent backup instruments.

Answer 6

I believe they do have a standby ADI that runs on Battery Bus, as seen on this A330-203:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-France/Airbus-A330-203/1872181/L/&sid=2d3c0b3c0c98c2c5b90bee73012ff49b



They should have used that to confirm their attitude if they lost all other instruments.