What Realy hapened in Douala?

"Pilots fly by faith; faith that the laws of aerodynamics have not been repealed, that the airplane wings will not break off in flight, but this trust must not translate into complacency, a desire, even a hope that the worn out left tire will last another landing or even that the half empty fuel tank will last throughout the last leg of the flight."

As more information continue to steam in on the ill fated KQ507, official briefings seem more riddled with inconsistencies than ever. Boeing 737-800 rotates at about 156 knots of airspeed with about 10' of flaps down, climbs at approximately 210 knots and a 10 degrees nose up pitch which translates to about 1800 ft/min in a dirty configuration: Now at this point assuming that the engines fail, the standard emergency procedure is to land straight ahead as turning around to return to the runway sets the plane up for an uninadvertent stall and a possible spin too close to the ground: Not enough time to recover and land safely, So When KQ's Chief pilot suggests that the most predictable action fron the cockpit crew was to turn around, it begs the question as to whether the airline has become too complacent due to their safety history as to have ignored review of emergency procedures.

With reports of stormy weather reports, it is possible that KQ507 hit a wind shear thus losing its airspeed in a dirty configuration and eventualy stalling on take-off. The theory of taking off in pitch darkness holds little or no water since the plane was flown under VFR conditions, unless instrument failure is factored in

Bill Ouko