Airasia 8501

JOhnH said:
http://news.yahoo.com/airasia-plane-climbed-speed-beyond-normal-then-stalled-002608063.html

Is it true that airliners ususally only climb ~1000 fpm? My 172 would climb at 1,100 fpm on a good day. I would have thought 6,000 was realistic.
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Another possibility is that they got caught in a strong storm updraft and did not attempt to maintain altitude - 6000 fpm is within range of what has been observed, per Britannica (my conversion to fpm in brackets []):"Updraft speeds typically peak in the range of 5 to 10 metres (16 to 33 feet) per second [960 to 1980 fpm], and speeds exceeding 20 metres (66 feet) per second [3960 fpm] are common in the upper parts of large storms. Airplanes flying through large storms at altitudes of about 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) have measured updrafts exceeding 30 metres (98 feet) per second [5880 fpm]."
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked...hunderstorms-and-mesoscale-convective-systems

Once exiting an updraft at the higher altitude they might have encountered a fast downdraft and might have stalled in that trying to slow their descent. Will be interesting to see what the flight recorder shows.
 
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