Map of the route and area where Air France flight AF447 vanished from radar. Source: Guardian
Posted on 06/01/2009 3:50:07 AM PDT by rdl6989
(CNN) -- A French passenger aircraft carrying 228 people has disappeared off the coast of Brazil, airline officials say. A file photo shows an Air France jet on take off. Some 228 passengers are aboard the missing aircraft.
A file photo shows an Air France jet on take off. Some 228 passengers are aboard the missing aircraft.
Air France told CNN the jet was traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris when contact was lost.
The airline said flight AF447 was carrying 216 passengers in addition to a crew of 12. The plane is listed as an Airbus A330.
State radio reported a crisis center was being set up at Charles de Gaulle where the plane had been due to land at 11.15 a.m. local time.
Reports said an air force search and rescue operation was underway around the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, 365 kilometers (226 miles) off the mainland.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Catastrophic airframe failures or flopping gear doors etc can also initially seem like turbulence from the pilots' perspective.
Map of the route and area where Air France flight AF447 vanished from radar. Source: Guardian
There are almost no tropical cyclones off South America - only one has ever been recorded, a few years ago.
Doesn’t mean there aren’t storms.
If it was lightning, could have been a rare postive stroke - almost all lightning is negative, but positive strokes can be unbelievably powerful. It’s believed such a stroke caused that airliner crash in the 50s or 60s in Elkton, MD.
Neither — McDonnell Douglas KC-10 (DC-10). Three engines. AWESOME refueling platform.
If the below-floor direct cables and linkages are damaged in the DC/KC-10 for some reason (e.g, cargo flooring collapses and destroys cabling and pulleys), the “fly by wire” in the overhead could still be used to land the aircraft.
You could even use differential power to control aircraft — left/right throttle for roll, and center throttle for pitch. That's how they landed the DC-10 with complete and catastrophic hydraulic loss Sioux City, Iowa (1989). If not for a gust of wind at landing lifting the wing and causing it to crash right before touchdown, all should have survived. By all rights, all should have died on that flight.
Every aircraft (and systems) has its strengths and weaknesses, but Airbus' ONLY fly-by-wire ... sorry man, that just seems crazy to me.
In the likelihood the plane sank, they’ll probably never know.
HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO A HUGE PLANE LIKE THAT? TRACKING DEVICES? HEAT SCANNERS....THOSE STINKEN THINGS PEOPLE USE AT THE BEACH....METAL DETECTORS....COME ON PEOPLE
It has been a long time since I last saw The Lord’s Prayer in French.
That’s the first time I’ve seen the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary in French. Bon fait.
Going around or turning back is the advice I’ve always heard. Going over is not an option because it is not uncommon for thunderstorms to top out above 40,000 feet.
Because they’re having to search for one 150-foot-long, 200-ton airplane—or, more likely, thousands of tiny pieces thereof—over thousands of square miles of ocean that’s thousands of feet deep. “Needle in a haystack” doesn’t even begin to cover it. The Brazilian Air Force has planes flying the A330’s filed flightplan looking for clues, and I’m sure they’re using things like magnetic anomaly detectors (big metal detectors) and such. Also, the two “black boxes” have locator beacons that are supposed to activate automatically in the event of a water crash. But again, you’re dealing with an immense stretch of open ocean and wreckage that may be a mile or more underwater.
}:-)4
Airbus planes have a tech data recorder that transmits regularly. That gives maintenance crews a heads up if anything abnormal is happening.
time to update those little black boxes..they never work!
Air France CEO said “pilot had 11,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,700 hours flying this aircraft. No name was released.”
I read that the biggest mistake the Swissair pilots made was turning away from Halifax to dump fuel. Had they gone directly to Halifax and landed overweight they may have had a decent chance.
But I don't think such circumstances exist off the east coast of Brazil — at least I never encountered them.
IF it was turbulence causing other failures (electrical and other compound malfunctions), I can see a lightning strike that could cripple their systems and make more vulnerable to human error. Throw in some turbulence, and you have a recipe for disaster.
It's anyone’s guess, but they are long overdue.
This is probably a stupid question because I know very little of the properties of lightning, but...
Several years ago, I flew near a lightning storm. I was very nervous about lightning hitting the plane, but a teenager behind me pointed out that lightning will not damage a plane in the air because it is not grounded. So, it will pass through, but no damage will occur. It sounded feasible at the time and put my mind at ease.
My question is: why is that not true?
If it's any comfort to you, the government (FAA) has so many rules to follow about how the programming should be done for anything that flies (which basically serve as as CYA so that whoever did the software can say we followed the procedures) that frequently competent programmers will refuse to work on these because these rules, which are often absurdly interpreted, become more important than the program itself.
ML/NJ
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
maybe the teenager was trying to stop you from hyperventilating into a baggy?
4 8 15 16 23 42
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.