re: #106 Yankee Division Son

OT-
Terror Names Linked To Doomed Flight AF 447

Engineer decodes Air France Flight 447 emergency messages

The error messages sent by the plane show that multiple computer failures happened simultaneously, starting at 02:10 GMT, when a series of 14 warnings and failures emerged at once.

[snip]

The cryptic lines contain chilling meaning.

First, the auto pilot system disengaged. Then came a basic auto flight message warning. Next, something within the flight control computer failed. Then, warning flags appeared on the primary flight displays of the captain and co-pilot. Then the rudder exceeds the limits of normal flight. And on it goes.

“With all of these failures, they don’t have the information that they need to fly the aircraft in a safe environment,” Darryl says. “If the pilot or first officer don’t have any display functioning, then they’re flying blind in the night. … You’re trying to fly the aircraft with no technology.”

The last message received is a cryptic “213100206ADVISORY” warning at 02:14 GMT. It indicates loss of cabin pressure.

4 minutes from the start to loss of cabin pressure.

Lots of ways to write the scenario. But a small bomb could start such a error cascade, so could lightning strike, or sufficient turbulence to get the plane so far out of flight parameters the computers choked.