This is my First Post on this forum..so you will excuse my techical incompetence
, as i'm more of an afficionado..
I've been some reseach and found some striking similarities between the sequence of events reported by ACARS and the following Emergency Airworthness Directive from 01/15/09:
15 January 2009 - The EASA issues Emergency Airworthiness Directive No 2009-0012-E to address the above A330 and A340 Northrop-Grumman ADIRU problem of incorrectly responding to a defective inertial reference.
EASA Airworthiness Directives Publishing Tool
IF you look at the pdf inside that URL you will see that:
"An A330 aircraft experienced a sudden nose down order while in cruise. This
order was preceded by an automatic autopilot disconnection and triggering of the
“NAV IR1 FAULT” Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor (ECAM) Caution. "
There is also a procedure to recover from such cases of failure
- NAV - IR 1 2 (2 3) (1 3) FAULT
Note: Flight controls are in alternate law. Refer to F/CTL %u2013 ALTN LAW
(chapter 4 of the AFM)
Turn off the affected IRs.
Turn off the corresponding ADRs.
Set the affected IR mode rotary selectors to OFF.
Use AIR DATA switching as appropriate.
Use ATT HDG switching as appropriate.
Do not use speed brakes
-If CG above 32%:
Manually perform a forward fuel transfer from the trim tank.
Note: If trim tank pump is not available, do not perform manual forward fuel
transfer while speed is at or below 270 kt or while in climb.
Which seems to be a very similar scenario to the one at the moment of the accident.
Big Question:
Had the pilots been trained in that procedure.
BTW: I came across that EAD looking on wikipedia's ADIRU page:
Air Data Inertial Reference Unit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia