Blow out static port

Dave Butler wrote:

Yeah, I've seen that episode. It's always troubled me that the pilots
never
figured out the static ports were blocked, and didn't know the
transponder
altitude was based on the static pressure. I've wondered whether that
part was
true, or whether the truth was altered for dramatic effect. It's just

inconceivable to me that they didn't know these things. 'course, I
wasn't there.

As the victim of several instances of a blocked static system, I've
pretty much learned to recognize it right away. I wouldn't be quite
so quick to question the 757 crew's response, though. Their situation
was made quite a bit more complicated by the constant false (and
contradictory) warnings coming from the computers. Every time they
were getting close to getting a handle on the problem, some new
contradictory alarm would go off. Without any ground reference, and
knowing that their instruments were questionable (but not exactly which
ones, due to the number of alarms), it's not hard to imagine them going
into brain overload. Realistically, what are the chances of both
independent static systems failing simultaneously. In the end, they
ran out of time before they could come to the right conclusion.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)