Originally Posted by
Drum
Are you familiar with the MSAs in that area?
Intimately.
Originally Posted by
Drum
Let the crew alone. Let's see what shakes out of the investigation. Until then, let it rest.
This is you? The guy that's in everyone's business, can't shut up for five minutes, preacher to the free world, worried about what someone else has to say.
Don't you worry about putting words in my mouth, or shutting it. I speak very well for myself, thanks.
Flying a tailstrike to FL310 is idiotic. Period.
The MSA's are not at 310. There you go. Threw you a bone.
I have a fist full of type ratings. Flight engineer, mechanic, yada, yada. A few FAA certificates. I've yet to see an aircraft that recommended pressurizing after a tail strike. Maybe there's one out there, but you'll have to prove it to me, because if you tell me there is, I won't believe you.
I'm not questioning the crew's action in avoiding a collision. It may have been warranted, it may not. What they took seconds to decide will be pulled apart for a long time to come. But the decision to pressurize and climb to FL310 to fly to an airport a short distance away...is not part of that evasive action. If that crew climbed to FL310, they weren't planning to divert to nearby Denver. It may be that they were directed to do so, but clearly they had other actions in mind, and taking an aircraft with a potentially compromised pressure vessel, especially potential damage to the rear pressure bulkhead (tailstrike, remember?) to altitude, and pressurizing it, is a damn idiotic thing to do.
If you don't understand the ramifications of a failed aft pressure bulkhead, you might want to educate yourself by reading up on JAL 123. That's what happens when an aft pressure bulkhead lets go in flight.