Stavros Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 An Air France aircraft carrying 215 people from Brazil has disappeared from radar screens over the Atlantic Ocean, according to reports. Sky News "Air France regrets to announce that it is without news from flight AF 447, which was flying on the Rio de Janeiro - Paris Charles de Gaulle route and was scheduled to arrive at 11.15 a.m. today (5:15 a.m. EDT)," an Air France spokesman said. ABC News Reuters Fox News Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manxman2 Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 that report does not sound hopeful .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbms Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Bellyup will no doubt blame the IOMG for this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Hedgehog Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Now reporting it had an electrical problem after hitting turbulence. A fair guess that it has gone down then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terse Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 It may have encountered mild turbulance and surrendered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebrof Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 I was just thinking that fortunately incidents of this nature are very rare..., etc., etc., but then I saw the BBC aircrash timeline. There's more of this going around than one likes to think when one steps aboard one of Flybe's Dakotas. S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spanna Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 The most worrying thing about this is its one of the newer model Airbus'. They just dont crash (unless a pilot is being a plank.) I could be wrong but I think this is the first time a a330 has gone down without it being pilot error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluenose 52 Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 The most worrying thing about this is its one of the newer model Airbus'. They just dont crash (unless a pilot is being a plank.) I could be wrong but I think this is the first time a a330 has gone down without it being pilot error. Why can't we all just give a thought and a prayer for those poor souls lost and their families. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebees Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Why can't we all just give a thought and a prayer for those poor souls lost and their families. Because we do not know their names? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minxie Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 Is right that if you lose cabin pressure people pass out, or is that just movies? The Airbus A330-200, carrying 228 passengers and crew members, is believed to have vanished in a towering thunderstorm with no word from its pilots that they were in crisis. The plane had beamed out several signals that its electrical systems had malfunctioned and, according to one report, that it had lost cabin pressure. The signals were sent not as distress calls, however, but as automated reports to Air France’s maintenance system, and were not read for hours, until air traffic controllers realized that the plane’s crew had not radioed in on schedule. As a search for wreckage began over a vast swath of ocean between Brazil and the African coast, experts struggled to offer plausible theories as to how a well-maintained modern jetliner, built to withstand electrical and physical buffeting far greater than nature usually offers, could have gone down so silently and mysteriously. There were no suggestions on Monday that a bomb, a hijacking or sabotage was to blame. Whatever of the plane’s final minutes was recorded in its black box may never be known, because it is presumably at the bottom of the Atlantic. As is common with trans-ocean flights, it was too far out over the sea to be tracked on land-based radar from Brazil or Senegal. Whether its location was captured by satellite or other planes’ radar is not known yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r1man Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 Condolences of course to the family and friends of those souls on board. If cabin pressure is lost at altitude then there will be insufficient oxygen and crew and passengers will pass out relatively quickly – that is why the oxygen masks automatically deploy when the ‘altitude’ in the cabin reaches 14500 feet (I seem to recall). Normally a cabin is pressurised so the ‘altitude’ experienced by the passengers is no more that about 8000 feet, even though the aircraft may be at 37000 feet. It is done by forcing more air into the cabin than the cabin lets out – thus ‘pressurisation’. An explosive decompression at 37000 feet would automatically deploy the ‘rubber jungle’ of oxygen masks so providing the decompression didn’t take the aircraft apart then the passengers can don the masks and continue to breath normally while the aircraft descends to an altitude where crew and passengers can breath without assistance. Airbus however, use a clever little system called ACARS (Airborne Communications Addressing and Reporting System) that advises of problems on the aircraft en-route so that the maintenance engineers can work on a fix before the aircraft lands – it helps to minimise technical delays. It would seem that according to Air France, the A330 has relayed some information over this system before going missing. It would appear from news reports that ACARS reported electric failure problems and AF are apparently aware that the aircraft flew through ‘turbulence’. Unlikely as it may be, and especially because the Airbus is an ‘electric’ aircraft (fly by wire and computer controlled) it is not beyond the realms of possibility that a lightning strike, or number of lightening strikes caused a catastrophic electrical failure. Without knowing what other (if any) messages ACARS transmitted (and AF are not saying) then it is impossible to ‘know’ or even second guess the cause of this tragedy. We will have to wait until either Airbus or Air France disclose more information or wait until the French aviation authority, the DGAC give its findings. I cant help but think that because the ‘B’ word is being refuted so adamantly already, Airbus and AF know more about this than is already in the public domain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minxie Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 Didn't Air France have a bomb scare quite recently at Charles De Gaulle (sp?) airport? That could be why there is such speculation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazza Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 . As a search for wreckage began over a vast swath of ocean between Brazil and the African coast, experts struggled to offer plausible theories as to how a well-maintained modern jetliner, built to withstand electrical and physical buffeting far greater than nature usually offers, could have gone down so silently and mysteriously. because accidents can and do just happin, even if it is a well maintained modern jet liner, IMO the more electronics and fly by wire that comes about the more chance of something going wrong i think this will happin more and more, so that should be banned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Toad Of Toad Hall Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 I sincerely hope that the cause is found to be a tragic accident and not a terrorist attack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
La_Dolce_Vita Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 I sincerely hope that the cause is found to be a tragic accident and not a terrorist attack Have there been any reports that it could be terrorists, ie. have any declared it was their doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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