Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ELIAF what is a sonic boom?

You know how when someone flings a whip like Indiana Jones there is a loud cracking sound? Well, they're breaking the sound barrier.

Now imagine that loud whip cracking sound on a scales orders of magnitude more powerful with a jet engine. You make an lotta noise.

Why only one boom instead of multiple (one for each jet)?

I didn’t realize how many people have never experienced a sonic boom. I lived in CA about 40 miles from Edwards AFB and heard them too many times to count. Edwards is/was a testing site for AF, Boeing, and Northrop so it makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:How do they know depressurization or hypoxia were the reason the pilot and passenger could not respond to orders? Could something else have been going on? Is this from an official announcement? Wouldn't they have to do an autopsy to come to this conclusion? I am ignorant - I had to look up the definition of hypoxia.

The F-16 pilots that were deployed apparently had visual contact with the plane. If they saw that the windows were frosted, this would indicate depressurization. This is what happened with the Payne Stewart crash.

Anonymous wrote:ELIAF what is a sonic boom?

You know how when someone flings a whip like Indiana Jones there is a loud cracking sound? Well, they're breaking the sound barrier.

Now imagine that loud whip cracking sound on a scales orders of magnitude more powerful with a jet engine. You make an lotta noise.

Reminds me of Payne Stewart’s plane crash. Plane lost pressure and flew for almost 4 hours before crashing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_South_Dakota_Learjet_crash

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Never fly in a private plane with only 1 pilot…

+100

I wonder if all passengers were passed out or just the pilot.

How does a plane fly 300 miles off course with no one noticing for so long!?!?

They were unconscious and the plane was flying on autopilot?

You misunderstood my question.

Supposedly an air traffic controller somewhere knew this plane was approaching. Someone knew the plane took off. How does the plane not show up to land and then fly around (possibly putting lives on the ground at risk) with no one noticing for so long?

I understand hypoxia. Autopilot is not an answer.

What do you mean? The air traffic controllers knew the plane was flying erratically and that it was unresponsive. Are you asking when they knew it? Probably pretty quick but I think you could figure this out from looking at the communications.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Never fly in a private plane with only 1 pilot…

+100

I wonder if all passengers were passed out or just the pilot.

How does a plane fly 300 miles off course with no one noticing for so long!?!?

They were unconscious and the plane was flying on autopilot?

You misunderstood my question.

Supposedly an air traffic controller somewhere knew this plane was approaching. Someone knew the plane took off. How does the plane not show up to land and then fly around (possibly putting lives on the ground at risk) with no one noticing for so long?

I understand hypoxia. Autopilot is not an answer.

Autopilot was only the last portion of the journey - the part that was very much noticed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Never fly in a private plane with only 1 pilot…

+100

I wonder if all passengers were passed out or just the pilot.

How does a plane fly 300 miles off course with no one noticing for so long!?!?

It sounds like rapid depressurization which means a copilot also would’ve been incapacitated.

How can no one notice this for so long?

If there was depressurization and hypoxia it likely affected all the passengers.

From various reporting, it seems like it was noticed not long after it failed to land at its intended destination and took one that straight-line apparently auto-pilot guided route. There were attempts to contact it over radio, with flares from escorting/intervening planes, etc. It also wasn't an explicit threat to anyone else so I think there was an abundance of caution (and only so much that could be done, short of shooting it down had it become a threat).

Anonymous wrote:How do they know depressurization or hypoxia were the reason the pilot and passenger could not respond to orders? Could something else have been going on? Is this from an official announcement? Wouldn't they have to do an autopsy to come to this conclusion? I am ignorant - I had to look up the definition of hypoxia.

I think people familiar with private civil air accidents and the risks of flying recognize the events as fitting a pattern and are hypothesizing this. One could imagine a lot of other things - each more improbable.

But yes, strictly speaking, until they find the black box and anything it recorded that would validate the hypothesis or perhaps, somehow, some remains that might indicate this happened to the passengers — or something else — I do not think this is yet known for sure, strictly speaking.

This BBC article doesn't, for example, repeat hypoxia/depressurization even as a qualified possibility (I think it'd be entirely fair if they did). They emphasize this the root cause is unknown so far. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65808194

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Never fly in a private plane with only 1 pilot…

+100

I wonder if all passengers were passed out or just the pilot.

How does a plane fly 300 miles off course with no one noticing for so long!?!?

It sounds like rapid depressurization which means a copilot also would’ve been incapacitated.

How can no one notice this for so long?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Never fly in a private plane with only 1 pilot…

+100

I wonder if all passengers were passed out or just the pilot.

How does a plane fly 300 miles off course with no one noticing for so long!?!?

They were unconscious and the plane was flying on autopilot?

You misunderstood my question.

Supposedly an air traffic controller somewhere knew this plane was approaching. Someone knew the plane took off. How does the plane not show up to land and then fly around (possibly putting lives on the ground at risk) with no one noticing for so long?

I understand hypoxia. Autopilot is not an answer.

How do they know depressurization or hypoxia were the reason the pilot and passenger could not respond to orders? Could something else have been going on? Is this from an official announcement? Wouldn't they have to do an autopsy to come to this conclusion? I am ignorant - I had to look up the definition of hypoxia.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How did it go 300 miles in the wrong direction and THEN turn around?

I don't think it went three hundred miles in the wrong direction? Looks like it flew to its destination and then not only didn't land, it turned around. Very weird. I was reading some aviation nerd reddit posts and it sounds like that's a feature of autopilot?

Sorry I must have misread. The reporting is confusing at best.

No, the reporting is not great, you're right about that. In their defense there's not a lot of information. They only found the crash site a couple hours ago.

But you do raise a good point. Was ATC not in contact with this pilot? How did he fly over a very crowded part of the country (I mean he basically flew the bottom half of the NE corridor), not land, and turn back around? It sounds like the Air Force attempted to intercept when he flew over DC the second time - because the first time he flew over Fredericksburg, but the second time he flew directly over DC, which is restricted. When did ATC lose contact with this plane?

The first time is it traveling normally. It doesn’t fly over DC. The turn may have been to set up for approach. Then the incident, then autopilot in a straight line. The last turn is just it running out of fuel and descending.

+100

Anonymous wrote:Did this plane cause air traffic patterns to be diverted over DC? I was at the Nats game and noticed multiple planes pass directly overhead landing at National. I hadn’t seen that before, but maybe it’s normal?

Maybe. I just heard that they told other airplanes in the area to stay away from the Cessna, which would divert traffic to other lanes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did this plane cause air traffic patterns to be diverted over DC? I was at the Nats game and noticed multiple planes pass directly overhead landing at National. I hadn’t seen that before, but maybe it’s normal?

I don’t know, but they can’t change the landing patterns. There are only two runways. What you’re describing sounds like the normal approach from the south along the river. It changes depending on the weather as far as which way they are coming.

If there a disruption there would be planes in a holding pattern or being diverted to other runways, but we wouldn’t notice it with regard to planes landing.

I’m sorry I meant diverted to other airports.