http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31040692
Although I would rather steer clear of speculation at this point...it would appear based on the information supplied by the media and Air France in this article, the chances of any surviving PAX or crewmembers is nil at best. It will be a long time before the cause is determined....may God bless their souls...
Full Version: Air France A-330 Missing Off The Brazilian Coast
This is the latest news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8078147.stm
What a terrible tragedy. There is the usual speculation about what caused the crash and the latest theory is that possibly lightning hit the wing, thus igniting the fuel tanks. Until they find the debris or any signs of where the plane went down they are not going to know for sure. These poor souls onboard. May they all rest in peace.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8078147.stm
QUOTE
Atlantic searched for lost plane
Most of the missing are Brazilians
France and Brazil are searching waters deep in the Atlantic for an airliner carrying 228 passengers and crew which disappeared in a storm on Monday.
France believes there is little hope of finding survivors from among those aboard the Air France Airbus, which was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
An automatic report of a short circuit was the last communication it put out before vanishing over the ocean.
French officials believe it may been disabled by a storm.
See a map of the plane's route
Staff at Charles de Gaulle and Rio's Jobim international airport have been trying to help relatives and friends of the 228 missing people.
They [the search teams] are hoping they can find debris, pieces, lifejackets that eventually float
Maria Celina Rodrigues
Brazilian consul in Paris
Passenger nationalities revealed
In pictures: Waiting for news
Mystery of Air France flight
Most of the missing people are Brazilian or French but they include a total of 32 nationalities. Five Britons and three Irish citizens are among them.
If no survivors are found, it will be the worst loss of life involving an Air France plane in the firm's 75-year history.
French and US sources have ruled out terrorism as the cause of the plane's loss.
US spy technology
Plane crews have narrowed their search to a zone of a few dozen nautical miles half-way between Brazil and west Africa, said Pierre-Henry Gourgeon, chief executive of Air France.
TIMELINE
Flight AF 447 left Rio at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on Sunday
Airbus A330-200 carrying 216 passengers and at least 12 crew
Contact lost 0130 GMT
Missed scheduled landing at 1110 local time (0910 GMT) in Paris
Timeline of Flight AF 447
Air disasters timeline
Their work may be aided by the Airbus's Argos beacons, which will emit signals for several days, he added.
A French reconnaissance plane based in Dakar, Senegal, was due to reach the suspected crash area on Monday evening.
It was to be followed by two other French planes based in Dakar, and a naval vessel currently cruising in the Gulf of Guinea, several days' sailing away. Spain and Senegal also despatched planes to help in the search.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that his government was approaching Washington for help.
An unnamed aide to French Defence Minister Herve Morin told AFP news agency earlier that France had contacted the Pentagon to "obtain access to its satellite observation capability and listening stations which might just be able to supply us with some clues".
Brazil has sent out seven air force planes and three naval ships to help in the search, far off the north-eastern Brazilian coast.
"We want to try to reach the last point where the aircraft made contact, which is about 1,200km [745 miles] north-east of Natal [in Brazil]," said Brazilian air force spokesman Col Jorge Amaral.
An unnamed air force spokesman told AFP news agency the search was focusing on a remote area close to where the last radio contact with the plane was recorded.
"This zone is on the line between the jurisdiction of Brazilian air control and that of Dakar in Senegal," he added.
Maria Celina Rodrigues, the Brazilian consul in Paris, accepted that the depth of the ocean would make it difficult for searchers.
"They are hoping they can find debris, pieces, lifejackets that eventually float, but that takes some time and they are coordinating with weather services and with officials overseeing maritime currents to try and narrow down the area," she told the Associated Press.
'She was on the plane'
The plane's automatic report was generated at 0214 GMT on Monday, about four hours after Flight AF 447 left Rio de Janeiro, and as it was heading through turbulence towards the west African coast.
Missing man Arthur Coakley’s wife, Patricia, and his business partner Ken Pearce
"A succession of a dozen technical messages" showed that "several electrical systems had broken down" which caused a "totally unprecedented situation in the plane", said Mr Gourgeon.
"It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came," he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport, where the airliner had been due to land.
Flight AF 447 was flying at an altitude of 10,670m (35,000ft) shortly before it went missing.
A meteorologist who spoke to the Associated Press said tropical thunderstorms in the Atlantic could tower up to 15,240m (50,000ft).
"At the altitude it was flying, it's possible that the Air France plane flew directly into the most charged part of the storm - the top," said Henry Margusity, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com.
French officials have stressed that the plane's captain was very experienced, clocking up more than 11,000 hours of flight.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy personally met relatives and friends of passengers at a crisis centre set up in Charles de Gaulle airport.
"I told them the truth," he said afterwards. "The prospects of finding survivors are very small."
At Rio's Jobim airport, shocked relatives were ushered into a closed lounge, away from the media and into the care of psychologists and doctors.
One woman, Vasti Ester van Sluijs, told AFP she had jumped into a taxi as soon as she heard news that the plane was missing.
"My daughter Adriana Francesca was on the plane," she said.
Most of the missing are Brazilians
France and Brazil are searching waters deep in the Atlantic for an airliner carrying 228 passengers and crew which disappeared in a storm on Monday.
France believes there is little hope of finding survivors from among those aboard the Air France Airbus, which was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
An automatic report of a short circuit was the last communication it put out before vanishing over the ocean.
French officials believe it may been disabled by a storm.
See a map of the plane's route
Staff at Charles de Gaulle and Rio's Jobim international airport have been trying to help relatives and friends of the 228 missing people.
They [the search teams] are hoping they can find debris, pieces, lifejackets that eventually float
Maria Celina Rodrigues
Brazilian consul in Paris
Passenger nationalities revealed
In pictures: Waiting for news
Mystery of Air France flight
Most of the missing people are Brazilian or French but they include a total of 32 nationalities. Five Britons and three Irish citizens are among them.
If no survivors are found, it will be the worst loss of life involving an Air France plane in the firm's 75-year history.
French and US sources have ruled out terrorism as the cause of the plane's loss.
US spy technology
Plane crews have narrowed their search to a zone of a few dozen nautical miles half-way between Brazil and west Africa, said Pierre-Henry Gourgeon, chief executive of Air France.
TIMELINE
Flight AF 447 left Rio at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on Sunday
Airbus A330-200 carrying 216 passengers and at least 12 crew
Contact lost 0130 GMT
Missed scheduled landing at 1110 local time (0910 GMT) in Paris
Timeline of Flight AF 447
Air disasters timeline
Their work may be aided by the Airbus's Argos beacons, which will emit signals for several days, he added.
A French reconnaissance plane based in Dakar, Senegal, was due to reach the suspected crash area on Monday evening.
It was to be followed by two other French planes based in Dakar, and a naval vessel currently cruising in the Gulf of Guinea, several days' sailing away. Spain and Senegal also despatched planes to help in the search.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that his government was approaching Washington for help.
An unnamed aide to French Defence Minister Herve Morin told AFP news agency earlier that France had contacted the Pentagon to "obtain access to its satellite observation capability and listening stations which might just be able to supply us with some clues".
Brazil has sent out seven air force planes and three naval ships to help in the search, far off the north-eastern Brazilian coast.
"We want to try to reach the last point where the aircraft made contact, which is about 1,200km [745 miles] north-east of Natal [in Brazil]," said Brazilian air force spokesman Col Jorge Amaral.
An unnamed air force spokesman told AFP news agency the search was focusing on a remote area close to where the last radio contact with the plane was recorded.
"This zone is on the line between the jurisdiction of Brazilian air control and that of Dakar in Senegal," he added.
Maria Celina Rodrigues, the Brazilian consul in Paris, accepted that the depth of the ocean would make it difficult for searchers.
"They are hoping they can find debris, pieces, lifejackets that eventually float, but that takes some time and they are coordinating with weather services and with officials overseeing maritime currents to try and narrow down the area," she told the Associated Press.
'She was on the plane'
The plane's automatic report was generated at 0214 GMT on Monday, about four hours after Flight AF 447 left Rio de Janeiro, and as it was heading through turbulence towards the west African coast.
Missing man Arthur Coakley’s wife, Patricia, and his business partner Ken Pearce
"A succession of a dozen technical messages" showed that "several electrical systems had broken down" which caused a "totally unprecedented situation in the plane", said Mr Gourgeon.
"It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came," he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport, where the airliner had been due to land.
Flight AF 447 was flying at an altitude of 10,670m (35,000ft) shortly before it went missing.
A meteorologist who spoke to the Associated Press said tropical thunderstorms in the Atlantic could tower up to 15,240m (50,000ft).
"At the altitude it was flying, it's possible that the Air France plane flew directly into the most charged part of the storm - the top," said Henry Margusity, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com.
French officials have stressed that the plane's captain was very experienced, clocking up more than 11,000 hours of flight.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy personally met relatives and friends of passengers at a crisis centre set up in Charles de Gaulle airport.
"I told them the truth," he said afterwards. "The prospects of finding survivors are very small."
At Rio's Jobim airport, shocked relatives were ushered into a closed lounge, away from the media and into the care of psychologists and doctors.
One woman, Vasti Ester van Sluijs, told AFP she had jumped into a taxi as soon as she heard news that the plane was missing.
"My daughter Adriana Francesca was on the plane," she said.
What a terrible tragedy. There is the usual speculation about what caused the crash and the latest theory is that possibly lightning hit the wing, thus igniting the fuel tanks. Until they find the debris or any signs of where the plane went down they are not going to know for sure. These poor souls onboard. May they all rest in peace.
Greetings all, I'm just coming to learn of this situation. What a sad story, worst of all so many if and or buts at this point,
this will truly take a long time to resolve. My deepest condolences and sympathies for family members.
this will truly take a long time to resolve. My deepest condolences and sympathies for family members.
For those interested in the meteorological conditions of this flight ,hereby a detailed meteorological analysis with satellite images :
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/
QUOTE
It appears AF447 crossed through three key thunderstorm clusters: a small one around 0151Z, a new rapidly growing one at about 0159Z, and finally a large multicell convective system (MCS) around 0205-0216Z. Temperature trends suggested that the entire system was at peak intensity, developing rapidly around 2300-0100Z and finally dissipating around dawn. From a turbulence perspective, these cold spots would be the areas of highest concern as they signal the location of an active updraft producing new cloud material in the upper troposphere.
Here's a news update:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/brazil_plane
quote from that article "Meteorologists said the Air France jet entered an unusual storm with 100 mph (160 kph) updrafts that acted as a vacuum, sucking water up from the ocean. The moist air rushed up to the plane's high altitude, where it quickly froze in minus-40 degree temperatures. The updrafts also would have created dangerous turbulence."
I just cannot understand why the pilots would have flown through these storms in the first place. The First Officer was highly experienced, and I'm sure he flew this route before and knew about these storms-why, then, weren't they avoided?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/brazil_plane
quote from that article "Meteorologists said the Air France jet entered an unusual storm with 100 mph (160 kph) updrafts that acted as a vacuum, sucking water up from the ocean. The moist air rushed up to the plane's high altitude, where it quickly froze in minus-40 degree temperatures. The updrafts also would have created dangerous turbulence."
I just cannot understand why the pilots would have flown through these storms in the first place. The First Officer was highly experienced, and I'm sure he flew this route before and knew about these storms-why, then, weren't they avoided?
QUOTE(UALdave @ Jun 5 2009, 07:51 PM) 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/brazil_plane
I just cannot understand why the pilots would have flown through these storms in the first place. The First Officer was highly experienced, and I'm sure he flew this route before and knew about these storms-why, then, weren't they avoided?
Don't believe the news until the accient report isn't out. For now all they do is speculate and try to beat each other with the most frightening stories they can find. It was hilarious to see that one reporter here who tried to get some kind of thrilling imformation out of a pilot from the association cockpit that he interviewed. Somehow the pilot didn't want to speculate though and he was able to negate all negative set questions completely. The reporter ended up running into dead ends with none thrilling information what so ever.I just cannot understand why the pilots would have flown through these storms in the first place. The First Officer was highly experienced, and I'm sure he flew this route before and knew about these storms-why, then, weren't they avoided?
Although I too hate speculations I'll give away my first guess: I could imagine something similar to the BirgenAir accident. Some sort of failure within the pitot-static system which resulted in a stall. After all it seems as if the pilots didn't have time to declare an emergency.
QUOTE(ChillSpiller @ Jun 7 2009, 07:33 AM)
Don't believe the news until the accient report isn't out. For now all they do is speculate and try to beat each other with the most frightening stories they can find. It was hilarious to see that one reporter here who tried to get some kind of thrilling imformation out of a pilot from the association cockpit that he interviewed. Somehow the pilot didn't want to speculate though and he was able to negate all negative set questions completely. The reporter ended up running into dead ends with none thrilling information what so ever.
News agencies are now saying that the pitot tube froze-apparently Airbus asked airlines to replace it.
A frozen pitot tube let to this accident in 1997: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austral_L%C3%...eas_Flight_2553
I just hope they get to those black boxes soon!
Good points, but I don't think that there's any doubt that this plane ended up in a severe tropical thunderstorm. And, with sophisticated radar, I just can't figure out why they wouldn't have avoided it. Because they would have seen it on radar.
News reports are saying that the "black box" pinger's batteries have expired and that France is going to commit to a robotic ocean floor search. There again is more speculation about the pitot tubes and in flight hull breakage...the usual.
I have this question, as soon as an aircraft disappears off radar, how soon are search and rescue units mobilized?
I have this question, as soon as an aircraft disappears off radar, how soon are search and rescue units mobilized?
Again some misinterpretations... Not the pitot tubes have been likely to freeze but the pressure sensor that indicates the airspeed. There had been an Information Letter of Airbus before the crash due to other incidents with this system. It was up to the airlines to decide wether to change it or not though. Therefor not a big deal up until now. Airbus has now taken action to change all sensors within the next maintenance, due to them not knowing the exact cause for the crash. The key is that the autopilot disengaged because it received three different airspeeds - at least that had been transmitted. Whatever system caused these variations is still unclear.
The plane did not end up in a severe tropical thunderstorm either. As weather reports have shown there has been nothing unusal concernig the weather at that location at this time of year. It was bad weather but, nothing unusual.
The plane did not end up in a severe tropical thunderstorm either. As weather reports have shown there has been nothing unusal concernig the weather at that location at this time of year. It was bad weather but, nothing unusual.
QUOTE(tripleseven)
I have this question, as soon as an aircraft disappears off radar, how soon are search and rescue units mobilized?
Concerning longhaul flights over water I would think as soon as it is certain that the plane will not arrive and/or direct contact as well as the radar signal is lost. Apart from that most areas of the oceans don't even have radar coverage. If it's on land you mostly have radar and an ELT (emergency location transmitter) that goes off as soon as the plane impacts. Those two as well as the loss of radio contact should be enough reasons to get a search and rescue operation started.
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