[FPSPACE] airliner tragedy

[Keith Gottschalk]

      The sequence of near-simultaneous, automated messages from the
doomed Air France plane reads painfully similar to the doomed flight of
Challenger.

   Damage starts on a wing, on so large a scale as to destroy steering.
Then escalating structural failure results in catastrophic breakup over
a minute or so, with cabin decompression. All so fast that the pilot has
no chance to press the Mayday button.

- Keith