Flight 604 Failure

Imagine flying a plane in complete darkness, thinking that you’re flying in one direction but you’re instead flying in a different direction. Flash Airlines Flight 604 was a Boeing 737 charter plane that crashed minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh Airport, killing all one hundred and forty-eight people onboard. Although there are no clear answers as to why Flight 604 crashed into the Red Sea, the current theories are pilot disorientation, mechanical history of the airline and the lack of communication in the cockpit. While I do believe that lack of communication was a minor factor, the most contributing factor to the accident was the captain experiencing disorientation shortly after takeoff. The lack of communication in the cockpit was definitely a factor in the accident, but it didn’t necessarily cause it. At the beginning of the flight, before takeoff, the captain made a remark over a comment the first officer said in their previous flight. This remark made it seem like the captain was making fun of the first …show more content…
According to Rocky Jedick, spatial disorientation is “the inability to determine one’s position, location, and motion relative to their environment.” A common example of spatial disorientation is the graveyard spiral. The graveyard spiral is essentially you going into a twenty second or more turn then retrieving the feeling that you’re not turning anymore when in fact, you still are. All of this is caused by the endolymph fluid in your semicircular canals starting to move with friction eventually catching up to it with the walls of the rotating canal. As this happens, hairs that act as motion sensors stand in an upright position giving the illusion to the brain that the turn has stopped when it hasn’t.
So how can spatial disorientation be linked to the accident of Flight 604? During the time of takeoff, the pilots no visuals as it was a moonless night, plus with them flying over