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 ...
If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going.
I have flown near typhoons and through bad storms in Atlantic and Pacific - “turbulence” sounds like a cover story for an Air France airliner, their fleet is not maintained and flown like a 3rd world operatioon
at best “turbulence” combined with (or caused by) a structural anomaly
the coincidental arrest of a high ranking al Qaeda operative in Brazil last week is the mouse in the corner no one dare mention. But perhaps we should be thankful he was not waterboarded.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2258816/posts
UPDATED INFO. what do you make of this?
Air France said in a statement the plane sent an automatic message reporting an electrical short-circuit at 0214 GMT, roughly 15 minutes after flying into the turbulence.
See post # 63.
I was on a domestic flight, a 737 when the right engine “fell” into someones backyard. Military pilot landed us safely. We were told a flock of birds.Ended up being a severe lack of maintaining the plane.This was years ago.
Brazil is as large as the US. That point is 4 hours flight from Rio.
Must be some sort of internal company communication. I am not entirely familiar with the Airbus and Air France.
It seems strange that they would be able to receive an automated message, but not a voice message. It might have something to do with the capabilities of the available radio frequencies. I've never flown anywhere where it was impossible to make VHF radio contact, so I just don't know. (I also never have had anything other than a simple auto-pilot, which I could and frequently did shut off with the flip of a switch, making any decisions for me.
ML/NJ
Isn’t that area off the coast of S. America known as Hurricane Alley?
Right... why no verbal message....if there was an electrical short you would think the pilot would communicate this. Unless the short some how ceased all communications... I have no idea.
Nope, a little bit more north of there is Hurricane Alley.
I know what you mean. I myself just hate it when engines detach from their pods and fall off into the ocean, together with a blown fuselage door and decompression at 35000 ft and a fire in the cockpit.. It's difficult to focus on the movie.
...Saving this for my fourth language studies. The Lords Prayer, and the Hail, Mary, to start the day. English, Latin, Spanish, French, German next. Thanks for the text...
There's all manner of fault detection stuff in airplanes. If the computer senses something like that, it makes good sense to have the aircraft automatically send a message indicating the nature of the detected fault. The pilots may be too busy to make the call; and this way they wouldn't have to.
If it was mountain turbulence, it may have been unforeseen or rather, unpredicted by the weather folks prior to departure. Off the coast of Japan, it can be quite strong.
Thunderstorm turbulence can normally be predictable, but not always. I once hit severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean from t-storms. We knew t-storms were ahead, but we painted the tops on our on-board Doppler radar a good 12,000’ below our flight path — seemingly safe. It made no difference; it seems the t-storms was SO powerful that the turbulence was “erupting” from the top of the storms, not “paintable” by radar.
Panels popped off in back. Engines surged. Passengers screamed in back. We lost and gained +/- 400’ altitude and +/- 40 in seconds. We followed our procedures, turning off the auto-throttles, “freezing” the autopilot and flew to the narrowest part of the line of storms. It lasted about a minute. We lived through it obviously, but it was a very scary experience, especially at night.
Prayers for the crew and passengers.
I (as a passenger) went through similar over the Tasman Sea about thirty years ago, I’ll never forget it.
So the turbulence continues well above the visible tops of those thunderheads (nimbus) clouds).
Anything's possible, but I seriously doubt this is likely. An aircraft computer is not like something connected to the internet; I think a virus would have to be coded directly into the software build -- more like sabotage, than hacking.
Strange reports - now i heard that the plane went thru a thunderstorm and may have flown for several hours afterward
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.