France - Air France Plane from Rio to Paris Goes Missing Over Atlantic, 1 June 2009

[Tricia]

Fox News is reporting an Air France Plane carrying 228 people drops off radar over the Atlantic.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523701,00.html

Dear God how horrible.

 

[poco]

OMG!!! The article says An Air France official says the airline has lost contact with a plane carrying 228 people from Brazil to Paris.

I'm wondering if they had voice contact with the pilot or if they just lost radar contact. I cannot find anything else about this.

 

[poco]

Okay, here we go.....

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/01/air.france.brazil/index.html#cnnSTCOther1

 

[roller26]

Oh no! It should have landed hours ago. What could have possibly happened to it?

 

[Truthful Lies]

I'm worried a lot over this...really saddens me. No family/friends on board that I know of...but still...they are "family" of the world. Prayers going up from me.

 

[Mr. E]

I heard on the Today show this morning that the plane was a type that could, and I may have this confused, but it sounded like it could become airtight, which means there is a chance that the passengers are awaiting rescue on the ocean somewhere. I really hope that is the case.

 

[HesterMofet]

I heard on the Today show this morning that the plane was a type that could, and I may have this confused, but it sounded like it could become airtight, which means there is a chance that the passengers are awaiting rescue on the ocean somewhere. I really hope that is the case.

Even an airtight plane can only stay up for a little while and only if the pilot was able to land it just right. The problem with the Airbus is that if you lose your electrical, which is what looks like may have happened here, you're screwed because there is no hydraulic backup system on those planes, it's a "fly by wire" aircraft. They have several different power systems, batteries and APUs, but lightning could have taken them all out. (This info courtesy of my husband who knows about planes. It's all beyond me!)

 

[Beyond Belief]

hmm my hubby said could be a bomb. Ugh.

 

[Mr. E]

hmm my hubby said could be a bomb. Ugh.

They said on the Today show that this was a possiblity as well, although they said there was no way to know. They said that take offs and landings are the worst time for planes because that's the time when most things happen. Things happening during flight are rare, and one of the possibilities was a bomb.

 

[Trino]

hmm my hubby said could be a bomb. Ugh.

No mention of this. News sources indicate the electric system failed.

"... the plane sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through strong turbulence, Air France said."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523701,00.html

Brazil's Civil Aeronautics Agency, or ANAC, told Globo news. "It could be a long, sad story. The black box will be at the bottom of the sea."

 

[Zuckerschnecke]

I am sick to hear that this plane was possibly struck by lightning. On a recent flight in April, from Tampa to SD, our plane was struck by lightning and let me tell you that all of us were very frightened. It shook the plane violently and the plane dropped suddenly before coming shortly back up. About twenty minutes later, the pilot came on and said we had been struck and had to make an emergency landing. It did not feel like a normal landing and later after we got on another plane, we were told we had lost some controls. I was on the internet googling to see if it was common and it really seemed to be that it wasn't so unusual. Now I see this on the news. I hope they were able to make a landing but now that it's daylight and there's no sign, it doesn't look good. How sad for all those people. Flying scares me now more than as a kid, I guess it's just part of getting old.

 

[Trino]

I am sick to hear that this plane was possibly struck by lightning. On a recent flight in April, from Tampa to SD, our plane was struck by lightning and let me tell you that all of us were very frightened. It shook the plane violently and the plane dropped suddenly before coming shortly back up. About twenty minutes later, the pilot came on and said we had been struck and had to make an emergency landing. It did not feel like a normal landing and later after we got on another plane, we were told we had lost some controls. I was on the internet googling to see if it was common and it really seemed to be that it wasn't so unusual. Now I see this on the news. I hope they were able to make a landing but now that it's daylight and there's no sign, it doesn't look good. How sad for all those people. Flying scares me now more than as a kid, I guess it's just part of getting old.

The scary thing is that the Airbus A330 has no hydraulic back-up system. An electric failure is catastrophic. Modern technology at work?

Many Vietnam era pilots with loads of experience have retired, and modern pilots may not be as well-trained.

 

[Zuckerschnecke]

The scary thing is that the Airbus A330 has no hydraulic back-up system. An electric failure is catastrophic. Modern technology at work?

Many Vietnam era pilots with loads of experience have retired, and modern pilots may not be as well-trained.

No kidding, look at the Buffalo crash. I hope they find this plane quickly and with any grace of God there are some survivors. So sad what all those people must have been going through. I will be glued to the news all day now.

 

[gaia227]

This gives me goosebumps. I HATE to fly. I am a nervous wreck the whole time and every little noise and bump sends me into a mild panic. After the plane that went down in the Hudson, the one in Buffalo and know this one I might be hoofing it around the country.

I feel so badly for these people. I hope it all happened very quickly. The thing that scares me so much about a plane crash is the time you have to think about the fact you are plummeting 30,000 feet to your imminent death. The terror, panic when the plane pitches and goes into rolls and nose dives. At least with a car crash it happens so fast you don't really have time to think about it. The scary thing about this is that they don't know where this plane went down. I hope they find it quickly. The poor families who are waiting for word.......

 

[KaylynnCouture]

This is really sad, and scary. I'm praying that maybe the plane just lost contact for some reason, but that everyone is fine and they're still flying like normal, even though I know that's most likely not the case.

:rose: Praying for everyone on board and their families.

 

[KaylynnCouture]

From FoxNews.com

The plane "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence" at 0200 GMT Monday (10 p.m. EDT Sunday). An automatic message was received at 0214 GMT (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday) "signaling electrical circuit malfunction."

 

[fran]

Thanks for the updates. I see still no news.


fran

 

[SuziQ]

There is an aviation industry discussion at the below link. People know their stuff there and sometimes there is inside info posted.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/4429616/1/#1

 

[SuziQ]

I'm afraid it's going to be bad.

I've been waiting for you to pop in this thread.

BTW, thanks for turning me on to Airliner.net. It's the first place I go when there is a crash.

 

[SuziQ]

, Shouldn't there have been enough time for some type of communication with the ground? If I'm understanding correctly there is only the automatic message that was sent?