Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Skip navigation

Air France Plane Missing

Add topic

Post



An Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris lost contact with air traffic controllers over the Atlantic Ocean, an Air France official said Monday, June 1, 2009. Brazil immediately began a search mission off its northeastern coast. Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members, company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand said. The plane disappeared about 186 miles (300 kilometers) northeast of the coastal Brazilian city of Natal, near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, an air force spokesman said. Brazil's air force said a search began Monday morning near Fernando de Noronha, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with Air Force policy.

The plane "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence" at 0200 GMT Monday (10 p.m. EDT Sunday) and an automatic message was received fourteen minutes later reporting electrical failure and a loss of cabin pressure.

That was the last communication sent from the plane, when it was about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the Cape Verde Islands, according to the Brazilian Air Force.

Meteorologists said tropical storms are much more violent than thunderstorms in the United States and elsewhere.

"Tropical thunderstorms … can tower up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters). At the altitude it was flying, it's possible that the Air France plane through directly into the most charged part of the storm — the top," Henry Margusity, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com, told The Associated Press.


Source:  Associated Press

Back to the top

Post

Re: Air France Plane Missing

How does a plane just go missing? It's not like losing your cat, It's a 200 ton machine! I'm sorry to say it but I think this plane is somewhere in Atlantic Ocean

My two favorite teams are FAU, and who ever is beating FIU!
Back to the top

Post

Re: Air France Plane Missing

It's the PC way to say it…pretty sure this will turn out to be a complete fatality…

Just wanted to put it out there as it is a major national news story at present…

Prayers to the families of the victims.
Back to the top

Post

Re: Air France Plane Missing

Air France Plane Missing

i heard about this, on NPR this morning.....insane....any updates?
Back to the top

Post

Re: Air France Plane Missing

power went out over the "Bermuda triangle" ? or south of there

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog."
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
Back to the top

Post

Re: Air France Plane Missing

Nunzio42 said

i heard about this, on NPR this morning…..insane….any updates?

Unfortunately, only this:


France and Brazil sent military planes and ships to scour a vast area of ocean where the Airbus A330 jet may have come down during the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. But officials said there was little chance that anyone could have survived.

"It's a tragic accident. The chances of finding survivors are tiny," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport after meeting passengers' relatives.

"It's too early to tell what went on and what caused this tragedy," Isabelle Birem, Air France's general director in Brazil, said at a news conference in Sao Paulo.

"We need to study the technical results from the black box," she added, referring to the cockpit recorder.


Source: Associated Press

Back to the top

Post

Re: Air France Plane Missing

With the inevitable collapse of GM this story has been put on the back burner.  Manly because it was an international flight from an Airline not based in the U.S.  Thankfully, this morning Brazilian Air Force Jets have reported seeing some wreckage about 400 miles off the coast of Brazil.  It was pretty much known that no survivors were going to be found. But hopefully by finding the black box there can be a determination made as to how the plane crashed and give family members some closure.  It's extremely rare for either turbulence or lightning to make a plane drop out of the sky.  So, the circumstances around this disaster are pretty bizarre.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Plane searchers spot ocean debris
Back to the top

Post

Re: Air France Plane Missing

Hopefully they can find the "black boxes" for the plane and figure out what happened.  This is a wierd story in that all that we know is that the plane was near some strong T-storms, and the plane's computer sent an automated message saying "electrical failure and cabin pressure loss".  This will be an incredibly tough search, since there is no exact position known and now several days have passed with strong currents and rough seas.  It's hard enough to find anything in the ocean, even when you know where it is, let alone when your not sure.

FAU - We got Bowls!
Back to the top

Post

Re: Air France Plane Missing

Wouldn't the Black Boxes sink with the rest of the airplane in water that is thousands of feet deep?

GO OWLS!
Back to the top

Post

Re: Air France Plane Missing

They actually have a locator beacon on them to allow for under water and submerged retrieval:



This a a great piece on the history and technology behind the black box, which is actually orange:

Link
Back to the top
Control functions: