Why did they even take off? Isn't airspeed a required call-out and part of
the operating rules for all carriers?

"Marc Lattoni" wrote in message
news:c3%hc.1386$2q2.192@edtnps84...
Last night on Discovery Channel there was a story of a Peruvian 757 that
went down because the two static ports had been taped over for cleaning
and
not removed. As you might imagine, the airspeed indicator and altimeter
gave
erroneous readings and fed the onboard computers erroneous data; after a
series of bizarre warning messages (zero airspeed and "over speed warning"
from the computer) the pilots attempted to correct for contradictory
information and multiple warnings and the plane crashed into the ocean

Do modern airliners not have an alternate static source as on my 172?

Marc