PaulR
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2010
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Sadly this pilot presumably lost his life when the plane crashed into the Gulf water softly after circling for a few hours in the air, after 3 hours when unable to talk to the flight Norad sent two F-15's to intercept the plane but couldn't see the pilot with a fogged or frozen canopy as reported by the press.
Looking at the flight track it made almost perfect circles as it progressed in the flight, and was also reported to change in alt from 20k to 30k while circling if the AP was on should have flown straight. Assuming the pilot was incapacitated with a medical condition I would assume and if the AP was off or on, anyone have any idea how it could have still been making these what appear to be almost perfect circles as I think something was on in the AP but can't figure out the circling and flight progressing ?
One theory is the pilot had Hypoxia, but the almost perfect circling makes me think the ap was on and can't think of what would cause this flight pattern and wondering if anyone has an idea that would cause the plane to track like this ?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/unresponsive-p ... 5Cyju192Wc
Looking at the flight track it made almost perfect circles as it progressed in the flight, and was also reported to change in alt from 20k to 30k while circling if the AP was on should have flown straight. Assuming the pilot was incapacitated with a medical condition I would assume and if the AP was off or on, anyone have any idea how it could have still been making these what appear to be almost perfect circles as I think something was on in the AP but can't figure out the circling and flight progressing ?
One theory is the pilot had Hypoxia, but the almost perfect circling makes me think the ap was on and can't think of what would cause this flight pattern and wondering if anyone has an idea that would cause the plane to track like this ?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/unresponsive-p ... 5Cyju192Wc
