Aviation Meteorology at Several Plane Crash Sites

Abstract

The causes of aircraft crashes were investigated for several accidents, such as the Tu-154 and the Airbus A320-211 crashes near Sochi, Russia; the Airbus A320-232 crash near the Perpignan airport; and the Airbus A310-324 crash during landing in Moroni, Comoros Islands. Failures related to aircraft aerodynamics caused these air catastrophes. Upon encountering an upward vertical front, the airstream over the plane wing was disrupted and, as a result, the aerodynamic lifting force suddenly and dramatically decreased. The critical value of the vertical wind speed in a sea-land front (SLF) was determined to be ~0.5⁻1.0 m s−1. Some recommendations are proposed to prevent such aircraft accidents near coastal airfields. Forecast predictions of a sea-land breeze w-Front and of MWT (Mountain Wave Turbulence) were performed by regional atmospheric models with a resolution no lower than 2 km. Further, a possible reason for the sudden disappearance of aircraft near the coast of Florida is suggested.

Keywords

• aircraft accident
• aviation meteorology
• regional meteorological model
• WRF-ARW
• vertical front
• sea-land breeze
• mountain wave turbulence