Air France plane missing [2009]

Air France jet vanishes off Brazilian coast

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

A French passenger aircraft carrying 228 people has disappeared off the coast of Brazil, airline officials say.

The incident involves an Air France Airbus A330-200.

Air France told CNN the jet was making the 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris when contact was lost.

Brazil's air force launched a search near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha in the Atlantic Ocean, 365 km (226 miles) from Brazil's coast, the country's state media said.

Air France said flight AF447 was carrying 216 passengers in addition to a crew of 12. The plane is listed as an Airbus A330.

The airline said it "shared the emotion and the concern of the families concerned" adding that friends and relatives waiting at the airport would be taken to a special area.

A crisis center is being set up at Charles de Gaulle where the plane had been due to land at 11.15 a.m. local time.

"We are very worried," an aviation official told Agence France-Presse. "The plane disappeared from the screens several hours ago. It could be a transponder problem, but this kind of fault is very rare and the plane did not land when expected."

The Airbus 330 is a twin-engine long-range aircraft introduced into commercial aviation in the 1990s.

Transport analyst Kieran Daly told CNN that the lack of communication with the aircraft "does suggest it was something serious and catastrophic."

He said the aircraft involved is believed to be one delivered to Air France in April 2005. Video Watch aviation expert describe possible scenarios »

"It is an extremely young fleet by aviation standards," he said. "The A330 is state of the art with extremely reliable engines made by General Electric."

CNN air travel expert Richard Quest says the plane, a stalwart of trans-Atlantic routes, has an impeccable safety record.

"It has very good range, and is extremely popular with airlines because of its versatility," he said.
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They must all be on an Island somewhere experiencing strange electro-magnetic and time distortion phenomena. :D

Seriously though... I hope they are safe :(
 
Reporting now that the plane has not landed anywhere, and that by now, it should be out of fuel :(

Not much hope I'm afraid.
S&R will be hugely difficult, at the speed it travels, last radar point, all = massive search area.
 
It's terrible having to wait for news on what happened to all these people.

x 1 000000000000000 if you know them.
 
I hope I am just pessimistic but the chances of them being OK is slim. Contact was lost 3.5 hours into a 11 hour flight and the plane is over 3 hours overdue with no news.
My thoughts are with the family of the occupants.
 
Very horrible! When I was in Brazil I actually wanted to buy an Air France ticket for my fiancé that was in Belgium at that stage to come and visit me.

I can't imagine what I would have done if she were on that plane!! :(

Prayers go out to the families and friends of the people on board.
 
A terrible tragedy and very sad. Our only consolation is that plane travel is by far the safest way to get anywhere. Only 900 or so people died in commercial plane accidents last year in the entire world, so it really is a very rare event.

My thoughts are with the families.
 
Very, very sad. Condolences to the families. Will the plane sink? If thats the case it will be difficult to ever find it or even to recover it.
Don't "radar" part of the plane have back ups? Tragic.

BTW, how do you calculate the safety of plane travel?
900/Total Air Travellers? I think car travel won't be that bad, considering theres a gazillion more travellers with a much higher frequency!
 
a3dm86 said:
Very, very sad. Condolences to the families. Will the plane sink? If thats the case it will be difficult to ever find it or even to recover it.
Don't "radar" part of the plane have back ups? Tragic.
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It could have been a transponder problem or something similar and they sent a report of "electrical short" or something to that effect when they hit turbulent weather. Possible lightning strike? The problem is that the plane would be out of fuel by now and it still hasn't turned up anywhere so I'm afraid the worst is to be expected.

Also, even with a controlled water landing the plane is bound to break up and there will undoubtedly be casualties.

Let's hope and pray though. It's still not too late to find survivors.
 
Gosh what a shocking story. Those poor families and friends of all those on board who were expecting to see their loved ones 3 hours ago. How do you remain hopeful?

Surely the electrical fault experienced must have been quite severe? Can lightning really cause so much havoc? I thought planes flew above thunderstorms these days?
 
Ja I read about this, its terrible.
But most likely it went down into the Atlantic ocean. No one knows what happened, and most likely we wont know for years what happened. BUt there is one truth we do know. Its only a couple of years before we see this plane crash on Air Crash investigation on the Discovery Channel.
 
what always amazes me is the aftermath of a airline crash. There is literally nothing left. Scattered pieces of metal no larger than your fist... How they even find something like that in an ocean that is miles deep... like looking for a needle in a haystack....
 
No well if there is a lot of debris from the plane breaking up, you will normally see it floating on the surface.
 
Its like the series, Lost!!
So cool, I wish I was on the flight and survived on a scary mystical island...
 
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