Missing Jet: 'Fire' Spotted On Atlantic Ocean

SkyNews ^

[traumer]

A commercial pilot has said he saw a "fire" on the Atlantic Ocean close to the route of a missing Air France plane.

The pilot, for TAMAirlines, said he spotted what appeared to be orange marks in the ocean near to where the jet went missing.

More follows...

[buccaneer81]

[jerry557]

The article says..

A statement on the Air France website confirmed the plane was transporting 58 Brazilians, 61 French (a percentage of whom were French-passport carrying Brazilians), 26 Germans, nine Italians and nine Chinese. Six Swiss, five Lebanese, four Hungarians, three Norwegians, three Slovakians, two Americans, two Moroccans were also on board. Of the remaining 18 passengers, 16 were from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Gambia, Iceland, the Netherlands, the Phillipines,Romania, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey. The nationality of the last two remains unknown. An Air France spokeswoman said the 12 crew on board were all French.

[Westlander]

WWJ was saturated with GM as well. Wonder if they will donate entire days of coverage when the auto suppliers fold.

[denydenydeny]

It's "fly by wire". A million software bugs flying in close formation.

Fly-by-wire would be fine for commercial jets, the same way it is for military aircraft--if commercial jets were also equipped with ejector seats.

[Rockitz]

Using remanufactured (used) components with phony certifications that were desoldered from electronic waste in China...

[1066AD]

They probably got this info from this

Monday, June 01, 2009 9:12:05 PM · 294 of 300 2111USMC to 1066AD I found this link off of one the links you posted earlier. Talk of possible debris found?? Anyone know Spanish or Portuguese?

[patton]

LOL - good one.

[omega4179]

On the surface yes, but I did some research and a large number of A319/320 accidents where pilot errors.

[Jeff Chandler]

It's a piece of crap built by a Euro consortium including the French.

I guess that's why they've had so many deadly accidents.

/sarcasm

[Jeff Chandler]

I believe this is the one that is completely flown by wire, without backup hydraulics directly tied to the pilots’ console.

There's nothing at all wrong with that.

[neodad]

“This is indeed the very first A330 incident in commercial service. The only other loss was the quite famous one during flight tests.”

One of the more remarkable stories involving an A330 that was an almost disaster:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236

[neodad]

“This is indeed the very first A330 incident in commercial service. The only other loss was the quite famous one during flight tests.”

One of the more remarkable stories involving an A330 that was an almost disaster:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

Wow. These explanations are waaay above my understanding. I usually just ask my dh, but he’s away at another conference at the moment. He’s flown military jets and quite a few corporate-type & commercial passenger a/c. But I know that he’s happiest when he has the most human control options built into his a/c. Like back during the millennium, when no one knew what exactly was going to happen to a/c computer systems...he was very happy to be flying the 727.

[dusttoyou]

I agree on your assesment on Airbus.

Flying often, way back to Braniff days, I found the Airbus in general of lower quality than Boeing, Canadian, etc. The damn things snapped, crackled and popped way more than I could get used to, never felt comfortable on Airbus.

[Jeff Chandler]

One of the more remarkable stories involving an A330 that was an almost disaster:

And the verdict is: faulty maintenance on a safe plane. Just like the famous DC10 incident.

[Jeff Chandler]

Fly by wire is not less safe.

And people who don't trust it better figure on quitting commercial flights eventually.

[Not now, Not ever!]

Was that the incident with the trees?

[cammie]

Yes. Down a runway and into the trees. But wasn’t that flight crewless - a complete remote control test?

[Blood of Tyrants]

No, I don’t think so. All the planes built since the early 80’s are fly-by-wire (electronic signals to servos) and are subject to electronic interference and a lightning strike is one heck of an interference.

[mimaw]

I know nothing of the engineering specifics of any airplane but after one flight on an Airbus when they first came on the scene in the 80’s or early 90’s I have avoided them as much as humanly possible when traveling to France and the Caribbean and always here in the states. I hated the way they felt on take off.