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Alex Macheras
@AlexInAir
Severe damage to the aircraft involved in the FlyDubai incident, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, following the ‘forced’ descent (from 30,000ft to around 15,000ft in just approx 30 secs) during the time of an incident in the flight deck (involving pilots, and reportedly some passengers)
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David Watson 🥑
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Alex Macheras
@AlexInAir
Quite striking damage to rudder, & parts of the outer skin In a steep, high-speed descent, aerodynamic forces build extremely quickly…loads increase roughly with the square of airspeed (as speed rises, the forces acting on the tail & control surfaces can become enormous)
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Alex Macheras
@AlexInAir
Important, though: the damage alone doesn’t tell us what caused the upset. Investigators will need to establish whether this was a consequence of the event, a contributing factor, or something else. Remember, typically it’s layer up on layer, rather than what’s initially assumed
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Phil Trubey
@PTrubey
That's about 350 MPH towards the ground. Terminal velocity for a human skydiver is 120 MPH. That plane must have been in a powered dive of at least 30 degrees, maybe even transonic (air is thin there). Just leveling out of that dive must have put huge stresses on the airplane.
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Noise
@NoiseesoiN
They were pushing 0.9 Mach at the end of that, I'm surprised the plane made it when they puled up.
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Bilal
@pagingdocjones
An extremely rapid descent consistent with an altercation in the cockpit could shear off most of the rudder. Landing this bird intact was no mean feat.
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Huba
@Huba2222
Pilot opening the cockpit door to allow passenters to save themselves was a true act of heroism.
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Tmamaln
@Tmamaln
Quote
أحداث الشرق الأوسط
@MiddleEatE
Translated from Arabic
🔴 Urgent 🇸🇦 Official statement issued from Tabuk Airport: 👇👇 🔴 We received a distress call from a Flydubai flight for an emergency landing at 8:44 AM. 🚨✈️ 🔴 We declared a state of emergency and readiness upon receiving the distress call from the Flydubai aircraft. ⚠️🚨 x.com/MiddleEatE/sta…
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Yafeng Deng
@LongTermMemoryE
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Glenn
@XGlenn82
With this descent rate it would of caused incredible stress on the air frame
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Trexx
@Trexxl
Credit to Boeing for building a passenger plane that can cope with the level of stress usually only experienced by a jet fighter.
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Paul Dow
@PaulDow2026
I thought airliners now have reinforced cockpit doors. Did this plane not have it, was it open during the attack, or can they still be forced open with enough effort?
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Steven
@CoderSteven
Since 2018
@Boeing
continues to show me why I have avoided using any Boeing planes for nearly a decade. Hard to travel with Airbus because American Airlines stick to loyalty so I need to take long routes to use Airbus only 😩
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Oren Evron
@OrenE_IL
of all things - this is what you report? The airplane damage? The fact the place was hijacked - and this all could have been another 9-11 doesn't count?
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The presence
@Epidemic753
So boeing doesn't make junk like all of the internext expert commentators try to explain. That is one tough airframe.
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Flubber Grump
@FlubberGrump
Assuming it started in level flight and then levelled at 15000 30 seconds later, it would need to have reached a peak vertical speed of about 630mph, or about 1.3x the local speed of sound. Seems unlikely to me.
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