Monday, November 2, 2015

What Brought Down The Russian Tourist Airliner


For John, BLUFAt this point it is all speculation, and someone will guess right.  Luck.  Nothing to see here; just move along.



On City Life this AM someone asked what brought down the Russian Airliner.  There are strong indications the aircraft broke up in flight and fell to earth.  That part seems pretty sure.

In this Boston Globe article is a picture of the tail section of the Airbus A321-200 that came apart over Sinai.  "Cause of jetliner crash remains uncertain".

But what caused the breakup in flight?

  • Highly Unlikely:  It is possible that it was hit by a missile.  It was over the Sinai, which is controlled by Egyptian Rebels.  But, no man portable surface to air missile did this and the chances the rebels have a real surface to air missile are very slim.
  • Highly Unlikely:  The pilot performing some whifferdill that causes the aircraft to exceed its structural limits.  Maybe because he was mad at the airline, or his wife.  The likelihood is low because the flight controls may not have the authority to maneuver the aircraft outside of tested and approved flight limits.
  • Low Probability:  The aircraft is over a decade old and a defect in design or manufacture, aided and accommodated by poor maintenance practices, could have caused some of the skin to rip off, causing major structural failure.  That would bring the aircraft down.
  • Medium Probability:  A bomb could have caused this, but whose bomb?
    • Small Possibility:  A disgruntled airline employee, looking for revenge.
    • Some Possibility:  A person rejected in love, striking back.
    • Some Possibility:  A person looking to ice an inheritance.
    • Good Possibility:  A Russian home-grown insurgency found an opportunity to strike back.
    • Strong Possibility:  Daesh, upset with Russian intervention in Syria, strikes back.
  • Possible, But Highly Unlikely:  Something we haven't yet thought of.
At this point we just don't know.

Regards  —  Cliff

4 comments:

  1. An Isis-friendly bomb seems to me the place to make the first bet. Remarkable how loathe media and the politics that control them are to say it.

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  2. I agree with Craig on this, for likelihood.

    One additional unlikely possibility is that the airline passed through a flock of birds at 15,000, while ascending, and took damage not immediately noticed, but eventually fatal.  Migrating flocks of birds have been found that high (which is surprising to me) over the Sinai, per someone who wrote a note late last night.

    Regards  —  Cliff

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Downing Street names the elephant in the room. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34724604

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Please be forthright, but please consider that this is not a barracks.