SCIENTISTS at QinetiQ are at work researching a type of turbulence which may have caused the recent airliner crash in New York.
Since the American Airlines A-300 Airbus crashed in Queens on Monday, December 12, speculation has been rife that the accident could be blamed on wake vortices from another aircraft.
A team from the remote-sensing division at QinetiQ (formerly DERA) has been researching the phenomenon for several years, sponsored, ironically, by Airbus.
Dr Michael Harris, technical leader of the team, said air disturbance is part of the lift process.
Aircraft running into vortices can undergo a severe buffeting, although Dr Harris said he could not speculate on whether it caused the latest crash.
The QinetiQ team uses a laser radar or "lidar" to detect the vortices, which are normally invisible to the eye.
Airbus hopes the information gained from research will allow engineers to design plane wings which will minimise the problems.
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