Air France Jet Is Feared Lost on Flight From Brazil to Paris

NY Times ^

[traumer]

PARIS — An Air France passenger jet traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappeared after its electrical systems malfunctioned during a storm with heavy turbulence on Sunday evening, and officials said Monday that a search had begun for the wreckage near a small archipelago off the Brazilian coast.

“We are very worried,” said an aviation official in Paris interviewed by Agence France-Presse. “It could be a transponder problem, but this kind of fault is very rare and the plane did not land when expected.”

The plane, an Airbus 330, was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members. The passengers were 126 men, 82 women, seven children and one infant. There were nine cabin crew members and three pilots, the airline said.

Four hours after the flight took off at 7 p.m. local time on Sunday, the plane encountered an electrical storm with “very heavy turbulence,” an Air France spokeswoman, Brigitte Barrand, said. Air traffic controllers lost all contact with the plane about 10 minutes after the heavy turbulence was reported.

The last communication was an automatically sent message informing air traffic control of electrical-system malfunction, Air France officials said in Paris. Officials said the plane might have been struck by lightning.

All jets are built to withstand severe turbulence, especially at upper flying levels, as well as to withstand lightning strikes. Pilots are trained to try to avoid flying directly through thunderstorms, and instead try to find an opening in a storm front through which to guide their plane.

[silverleaf]

not yet buying such a rapid conclusion

too much coincidence

[blu]

What was the flight number? Was there a doctor, a con man, and a really fat millionare on board? (Sorry, a little LOST humor..)

[philly-d-kidder]

Say a Prayer!

[saganite]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2262007/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2261994/posts

[RushingWater]

I remember somebody posting here many years back an article about a previous complete electrical failure on an Airbus but in this event everything came back online, but the pilots did freak out about it.

[Walkingfeather]

Can anyone link the radar patterns over that area from the time of departure to the time of first no contact? Not that I don’t trust the official talking points.......

[ought-six]

“Can anyone link the radar patterns over that area from the time of departure to the time of first no contact? Not that I don’t trust the official talking points.......”

Someone did post the weather radar pictures of the area on another FR post. Lots of red areas signifying bad storms.

[Cicero]

Accidents do happen. It sounds as if that’s the case here.

If it was a terrorist missile, that would be a very odd flight to go after. And probably if it was in mid voyage, a very odd place and a very high altitude.

[dragnet2]

I was waiting for some idiot to start making jokes about 220 dying in an aircraft.

You get the idiot trophy!

[ml/nj]

Pilots are trained to try to avoid flying directly through thunderstorms, and instead try to find an opening in a storm front through which to guide their plane.

Actually, I was trained to do a 180 and head back to someplace safe. But that was just me flying little planes that couldn't even go over small storms.

ML/NJ

[Young Werther]

The A330 has a RAT!!!!!

This was a description and answer at Aerospaceweb

Please describe the propeller located on the back of the wings on the Airbus A330 used during the miraculous flight recently.

- question from Ruth Treloar

The device you speak of is known as a ram air turbine, or RAT. The RAT is used in emergency situations to generate sufficient power to keep an aircraft flying long enough to land. Thus, the RAT performs the same function as an auxiliary power unit (APU). But while an APU is essentially a small jet engine that burns regular jet fuel to generate this additional power, the RAT consists of a propeller that is spun by the high-speed air flowing past the aircraft. The spinning propeller powers a turbine that provides the emergency electricity needed to keep critical systems running, such as hydraulics, flight controls, and key avionics. In normal flight, the entire assembly is folded up and stored in the aircraft fuselage or wing. A typical ram air turbine produced by Hamilton Sundstrand is shown below.

Not all RATs are bad. Just the Dumb ones like Obama, Reid and Pelosi!

[Buckeye McFrog]

this flight has been officially categorized as “lost” for quite a long time now (trying to get their stories straight??)

[Habibi]

“Officials said the plane might have been struck by lightning.”

Pure BS. This is in the category of, “It could have been attacked by extra-terrestrial craft”. Hey! It could happen, and we don’t know that it didn’t, so why not say it?

They haven’t even found debris yet and they’re coming up with this horse hockey. I’d like to see what the FDR and CVR have to say, rather than some PR merchant back in Paris.

[CurlyDave]

How about names & bios of the flight crew.

I remember a situation where a muslim pilot tried to dive into the ocean from altitude. The Christian co-pilot saved the plane and disabled the pilot.

[Publius6961]

BUMP!

[traumer]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8077858.stm

Air France confirmed 61 French and 58 Brazilian passengers were among the 216 passengers on board flight 447.

A list provided by Brazil’s authorities showed 26 Germans were also on board as well as nine Chinese and nine Italians.

Six Swiss, five British, five Lebanese and four Hungarians were on the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Those on board also included three Irish, three Norwegians, three Slovaks, two Americans two Moroccans, as well as individuals from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Demark, the Netherlands, Estonia, the Philippines, The Gambia, Iceland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey.

No details have yet been given about the 12 crew.

[mewzilla]

I’m still wondering how they know for sure that the plane wasn’t hijacked.

[Cicero]

Hard to know anything for sure unless the find the plane, which doesn’t seem likely at this point. But why would anyone choose to hijack a flight from Brazil to France? It’s possible, but it seems an odd choice.

[SloopJohnB]

From a popular blogsite - Flight Level 390 run by a U.S. airline pilot (archives are fascinating reading about flying conditions, aircraft types, work schedule and company ops):

I spilled my coffee when I saw a breaking news report on the overhead TV about an A330 lost over the Atlantic. Say again, please...

I have been listening to the media talking heads and the aviation experts for about an hour since waking from my nap. Overall, I think the mainstream coverage is within the proverbial ball park on this one. I cannot believe I am saying this...

But, here are two things being reported with which I will disagree:

1. (Media says,"A bolt of lightning cannot, by itself, bring down a modern airliner.") A bolt of lightning could easily wreck an aircraft and cause a crash by itself. Yes, lightning strikes on aircraft occur everyday. I have been struck many times over my career. Usually, it is a non-event causing only minor damage or none at all. However, if an aircraft is in the vicinity of a very large thunderstorm, it could be struck by a super bolt of lightning reeking total havoc with disastrous results.

2. (Media says,"Turbulence cannot, by itself, bring down a modern airliner.")Turbulence could easily wreck an aircraft and cause a crash by itself. Severe turbulence in the vicinity of a very large thunderstorm, or even a lesser one, has to be experienced to be believed. I have been inside thunderstorms several times in my career. It is unavoidable when you are a professional pilot. Anyone who disagrees with the previous sentence has not flown enough miles or has been very lucky. As a Line pilot, I go to great, even extreme lengths to stay out of thunderstorms for obvious reasons. Passengers pay me to deliver them safely to their loved ones.

A thunderstorm is a violent and scary entity. It has the power, and I mean real power, to easily rip the wings from an A330, or any other make or model of aircraft. No problem whatsoever.

On the automatic radio messages sent to Mother... Yep, Fi-Fi will send a message to the mainframe (think H.A.L.) when certain key malfunctions have occurred. It is a design feature of the Airbus Industries aircraft. Think you can hide a pesky malfunction from Mother so that you can do that last turn of the day and get home to Momma? You better be careful.

I will put forward two scenarios that may have happened to this jet:

First- Struck by a super bolt which fried the electronics causing depressurization, loss of electrical power and finally, a high altitude upset in IFR conditions (dark, turbulent, scary) leading to catastrophe.

Second- Encountered severe turbulence between or in thunderstorms. Airframe damage and/or failure leads to depressurization, loss of electrical power and finally, disaster.

Whatever happened, it was not pretty. The pax were terrified and the pilots were surely fighting until impact.

An A330 has crashed in the Atlantic... That fact is unbelievable.

Life on the Line continues...