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Joined: 16 Jul 2006
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 Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:19 am Post subject: |
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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/vanished/wreckage.html
| Quote: | NOVA: What can the spread of the wreckage on the ground tell you about the kind of catastrophe that might have befallen the plane?
KING: The spread of wreckage over the ground considered in the context of the local terrain can tell us quite a lot about the arrival of the aircraft in terms of the amount of energy and the nature of the flight immediately prior to hitting the ground. If the aircraft has come down vertically with relatively low energy, the wreckage will be contained in a relatively small area, dependent on the size of the aircraft, of course. If the aircraft is flying straight and level at high speed when it first touches the ground, then the wreckage will distribute itself typically in a fan shape over quite a large area. If the aircraft starts to break up in the air, particularly at significant height, then it will start to distribute pieces that will travel with the wind and be spread over sometimes many hundreds of square miles. If you consider the Lockerbie event, which happened at 31,000 feet, then the wreckage distributes itself over a large area of countryside. |
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