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 ...
I had a co-worker a few years ago scheduled on a very small shuttle plane up in Alaska. The ticket agent bumped him back to the next flight for another passenger instead. The flight he was originally scheduled for crashed into the lake with no survivors. What a twist of fate ay?
This is not looking good. I’ve seen reports now of several planes flying virtually the same route, at about the same time, at about the same altitude (presumably, based on the types of planes). If the others were experiencing exceptionally bad thunderstorm activity, they would have been getting word out to other pilots in the vicinity, to divert. About the only things *not* pointing to terrorism
are the Air France identity and the widely assorted group of mostly non-US passengers.
“I love you” or “I’m afraid” were some of the messages from phone to the passengers of the plane of Air France sent their relatives disappeared when they realized that the aircraft had problems.
Hmmmm...They have cell towers in the middle of the ocean?
I can’t buy that story...how do you get a cell signal 600 miles out in the South Atlantic, even at 35000 feet?
}:-)4
I have no idea how a text would get out. The account I noted is supposedly translated from Brazilian media reports.
And the ACARS message indicating electrical (and pressurization?) problems was sent at 0214 GMT, six minutes before the plane was supposed to cross TASIL (at 0220 GMT). If it was on time and on course, which is by no means certain at this point, it would’ve been about 40 to 50 nautical miles SSW of that spot, which is why the Brazilians say they’re going to focus their search there.
}:-)4
Satellite phones don’t need cell towers, and quite a few international travellers have them these days, especially business travellers.
(Radio Netherlands) France has asked the US military to use its network of spy satellites and listening stations to help find an Air France jet that disappeared over the Atlantic, French defence ministry officials said on Monday evening.
An aide to French Defence Minister Herve Morin said he would soon speak with his US counterpart, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, to discuss which of the Pentagon’s other military assets might be of use in the hunt for the plane.
How odd is it that an airliner has been missing for this long? Or is it to be expected given the route they were taking?
(New Strait Times) No emergency beacons, which are trackable by satellite unless they sink deep into the ocean, were detected, suggesting the twin-engine airliner crashed violently, said Philippe Hazanne of the French space studies agency.
French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo, whose portolio includes transport, said hijacking had been ruled out.
Gives a new meaning to “Overseas Contingency Operation”
For the clueless amoungst us, what does that mean.
snicker....
(AFP) “A succession of a dozen technical messages” sent by the aircraft around 0215 GMT (0745 hrs IST) showed that “several electrical systems had broken down” which caused a “totally unprecedented situation in the plane,” said Pierre-Henry 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 in Paris where the flight from Rio de Janeiro was meant to land.
Gourgeon said that military planes had narrowed down their search area to a zone of a few dozen nautical miles half-way between Brazil and west Africa.
Thanks RR! Now, perhaps misterrob can figure it out.
>>several electrical systems had broken down”
SABOTAGE.
One, a couple but several......
Then they've found it if the search area is THAT small.
A few dozen nautical miles of the Atlantic -- square miles even -- is like a putting green on a Wyoming prairie.
...or a bomb. ...or a MANPADS rocket.
Where did it fire from? A rowboat out in the middle of an Atlantic storm?
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