[sandee]

>at night, over an ocean, in a storm, with no visibility, in possibly significant turbulance

Instead of finding out strategies on how to fly under these circumstances, why can't the plane change its course, if they anticipate the flying route to have these conditions. How about running some reconnaissance drones in the popular routes if they suspect a bad weather and want to check out. Or try out better weather monitoring methods and tools on these routes.

Edit : Ok my mistake.On reading again, the article states "Unlike other planes' crews flying through the region, AF447's flight crew has not changed the route to avoid the worst of the storms. ".

[antoinehersen]

Not changing course like almost all other flight that night was their first mistake.

[einhverfr]

I noticed that the article suggested their weather radar was incorrectly set up, so that might be their first mistake.

[antoinehersen]

They should have pay extra attention to the weather since this region of the globe is prone to the worst storm. They even aknowledge it in the recording.

[yardie]

1. This is a region that is quite regular with thunderstorms. The captain probably assumed this was like any other storm in this area any other day of the week.

2. This route is at the upperlimit this plane configuration can fly. If they had to reroute they would need to stop and refuel in another country, possibly Spain, Senegal or Morocco. I assume the captain didn't want to do this and soldiered ahead.

[omegant]

You simply don't fly through a thunderstorm, as you simply don't drive through A concrete wall at 100mph. No matter how short you are on fuel.

[jonah]

That was the first thing I noted in reading this.

Is there any discussion as to why they didn't seek an alternate plan and if not, is this something that needs to or has been remedied?

[bambax]

> Is there any discussion as to why they didn't seek an alternate plan

The Captain chose not to, because he "wasn't afraid of clouds" (see my comment above). This was a huge mistake.

But Captains are in charge of their route and it makes sense; it would be incredibly bureaucratic and dangerous if routes were decided from a central command somewhere at the airline headquarters...

What we need are humble pilots; there should be psychological evaluation to weed out those who think they are John Wayne hunting down Indians.

Part of the difficulty is that the job attracts daredevils -- among others: that night, all other Captains went around the storm...

[ncw]

Would the weather radar not being set up correctly have played a part in the reasoning of the captain?