[Kanda444]

Originally Posted by a175 ↗

Reminds me a little of Air France 447. It's descent rate was nearly 11000 fpm with a combined vertical/horizontal speed of over 150kts

good call! you're right, it did have that feel....

[a175]

Originally Posted by Kanda444 ↗

good call! you're right, it did have that feel....

If you ever read/watch the time line of events involving the crash, it's pretty gut-wrenching to imagine what was going through their heads once they figured it all out.

[Kanda444]

Originally Posted by a175 ↗

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/f...fz981/#922b3bd

You can shift the playback toward the last 30 seconds or so of the speed/altitude tracking. Taking into consideration the weather conditions, they may very well have stalled and were recovering before impact.
When recovering from a stall you need forward airspeed, which you get from dropping the nose. Unfortunately, dropping the nose means sacrificing altitude. Throw in some windshear the margin for error disappears. Vertical windshear can kill you even when your flying is perfect.

That had to be a sickening experience.

....this is a very uneducated shot in the dark from me, but...do you think they could have tried to climb too fast with their flaps still down for landing? perhaps they tried to enter that final climb and didnt think about the flap position?

At 03:40:54, when the aircraft descended to 480 meters (1,570 ft) with a speed of 243 km/h and was about 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) from the runway threshold, the crew decided to abort the landing.
They reported their intention to ATC with "Going around, Sky Dubai 981".
ATC advised Flight 981 to switch to another air traffic controller ("Sky Dubai 981, contact Rostov Radar on 121.2").
Flight 981 acknowledged this with "121.2, bye-bye", which was their final transmission. The aircraft increased its speed and within 43 seconds climbed to 1,200 meters (3,900 ft) with a speed of about 343 km/h.

Starting at 03:41:37 the aircraft's altitude rapidly decreased and it hit the ground.

[Pink.]

Originally Posted by a175 ↗

Certainly possible. The two flyers had at about the same level of hours, so there wouldn't be much of an experience offset if it was operator error.

It's tough to say.

If they had entered a stall and then realized their error, they wouldn't have much time to fix it. You'd have to get speed immediately, and that's not easy with a jet engine. Spooling takes time, so you drop the nose. You have to have the air moving over those surfaces to get lift, without it and you're just a shiny rock.

That's why I'm also thinking a possible weather-induced crash with operator error as a precursor. Throw in a microburst and you could very well be toast depending on the strength of the shear and your altitude. I could be way, way off.

Not very far off.

The formulas are pretty straightforward until you add factors that are conditional...

[Pink.]

Originally Posted by Kanda444 ↗

good call! you're right, it did have that feel....

I have never felt anything like what has been described to me that would compare except for pulling gs.....only down and at a 45 degree angle.....sickening and horrific.

[a175]

Closest I ever came was in a Chinook that kept plummeting during a flight from Gardez to Bagram. They said some crap about the calibration being off and I was like yeah that doesn't sound made-up at all

They did reassure us that every member in the crew had already been in at least one crash before, so the odds of them all crashing together was low. Bastards.
Whatever it was, they fixed it by the next flight.

Most of that flight was spent looking out the tail/window for places I hoped we did/didn't crash and eyeballing everyone else's gear in case I had to scavenge.

That's nothing like what they would have felt, though. It's not like you can maaaaybe hop out of an airliner crashing at a couple hundred mph.

[lesslis2015]

Your scenario would be much worse!!!!

Passengers on that plane felt stomach in throat for a couple seconds then out. Pilots may have been somewhat more horrified but if training kicked in they probably just had ass and elbows moving everywhere trying to save themselves. Just my take and not interested in finding out if im right. Lol

[a175]

Indeed I have no interest either

I've flown around the globe several times. Had an engine catch fire on a C-130 (oddly enough we were going for a jump and they made us sit down and ride it back... the first time it made sense to jump out of a plane and we didn't ), landed with NO flaps in a C-5, fell out of an MH53 over tarmac, watched another one crash, broke my nose fast roping out of an MH47, and that previous ride in a Chinook. Even rode as a passenger a few times on "con air" (not adviseable).
All of those sucked, but I still get more nervous on civvy planes. I don't think I've ever enjoyed takeoff, and I'm not a big fan of landing.
There's just something about the pitch of the aircraft and the changing whine of the engines that get to me.
My second-to-last flight had to return to the airport after something went awry. I don't know what it was, but I was doing ok until I saw all the lights flashing on the fire trucks as we approached the runway... and them surrounding us when we landed. That legitimately made me nearly pinch a hole in my seat. I'm sure I left a nice crease on the cushion. Didn't enjoy it. Don't every want to do it again. Just alot of prayer and pondering at that point, and being thankful I didn't wind up on DR.

I guess the only upside is that in a situation like the airliner crash, as you said you probably don't have enough time to even freak out all that much. And it's a quick death... which the idea of that makes it a little easier I suppose. That's why I preferred parachutes over ropes anyway. Why break my spine and be a cripple if I can just burn in and leave a crater? Make myself useful and create a mini-foxhole for my buds.

[lesslis2015]

Lol. No flaps in a C5...holy shit bet that was a clincher!!
To this day cannot fly drug free. Handle all else with a straight mind. Not flying. Service dog is a huge plus for many things.

[a175]

I think we were just waking up from an Ambien-induced coma when they told us we were going to be landing without flaps.
The C5 seats above the cargo area (we were going as an advance party so it was mostly cargo a few SOF pax) are backwards, so it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Just really different being pressed into the back of your seat when stopping.
I want to say we were good, though. The runway at the location we stopped at for repairs has a nearly 12k ft runway.