Missing French jet hit thunderstorms over Atlantic

[Ban Hammer 13,342]

SAO PAULO – A missing Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris ran into lightning and strong thunderstorms over the Atlantic Ocean, officials said Monday. Brazil began a search mission off its northeastern coast.

Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse said "it is possible" that the plane was hit by lightning.

Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, left Rio on Sunday at 7 p.m. local time (2200 GMT, 6 p.m. EDT) with 216 passengers and 12 crew members on board, company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand.

About four hours later, the plane sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through strong turbulence, Air France said.

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

Brazil's Air Force said the last contact it had with the Air France jet was at 0136 GMT (9:30 p.m. EDT Sunday), but did not say where the plane was at that time.

Brazil's air force was searching near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) northeast of the coastal city of Natal, a spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with department policy.

The region is about 1,500 miles northeast of Rio.

The head of investigation and accident prevention for Brazil's Civil Aeronautics Agency, Douglas Ferreira Machado, told Brazil's Globo TV that he believes the plane must have left Brazilian waters and could have been near the coast of Africa by the time contact was lost, based on the speed it was traveling.

"It's going to take a long time to carry out this search," he said. "It could be a long, sad story. The black box will be at the bottom of the sea."

Air France-KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, at a news conference at Charles de Gaulle Airport north of Paris, said the pilot had 11,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,700 hours flying this aircraft. No name was released.

Aviation experts said the risk the plane was brought down by lightning was slim.

"Lightning issues have been considered since the beginning of aviation. They were far more prevalent when aircraft operated at low altitudes. They are less common now since it's easier to avoid thunderstorms," said Bill Voss, president and CEO of Flight Safety Foundation, Alexandria, Va.

He said planes have specific measures built in to help dissipate electricity along the aircraft's skin.

"I cannot recall in recent history any examples of aircraft being brought down by lightning," he told The Associated Press.

Experts said it was clear the plane was not in the air any longer, due to the amount of fuel it would have been carrying.

"The conclusion to be drawn is that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this airplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion," Jane's Aviation analyst Chris Yates told The Associated Press.

"I would suggest that potentially it went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilot on board didn't have a chance to make that emergency call," Yates said, adding that the possibilities ranged from mechanical failure to terrorism.

Families who arrived to meet passengers on board were cordoned off, away from reporters, at a special Air France information center at the Charles de Gaulle airport. That center said 60 French citizens were on the plane. Italy said at least three passengers were Italian.

"Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned," Barrand said.

The flight was supposed to arrive in Paris at 0915 GMT (5:15 a.m. EDT), according to the airport.

Airbus said it was cooperating with transport authorities and Air France, but would not further comment until more details emerged.

"Our thoughts are with the passengers and with the families of the passengers," said Airbus spokeswoman Maggie Bergsma.

The Airbus A330-200 is a twin-engine, long-haul, medium-capacity passenger jet that is 58.8 meters (190 feet) long. It is a shortened version of the standard A330, and can hold up to 253 passengers. It first went into service in 1998 and there are 341 in use worldwide today. It can fly up to 7,760 miles (12,500 kilometers).

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his "extreme worry" and planned to visit the Charles de Gaulle airport later Monday.

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[_Simpson_ 250]

sad very sad

[Ladylethal 12]

Yeah, just saw this as opening Globo Online for my morning Brazil news. This is horrible, something tells me it's gonna be indeed baaaaaad, but still I hope they somehow made an emergency landing and are found on rescue boats or something. Slim chances, I know, but can't help but hope.

On a side note, I should stop flying, every year right after I purchase tickets to travel home or before to travel here to visit Luis, etc a big accident like this occurs.

[trinket 30]

sad

[Marina-Del 10]

Oh no

I hope they find out exactly what happened. As the article says, it doesn't sound good, but I think it's important for the families to know. And, for future air travel of course.

[trinket 30]

On a side note, I should stop flying, every year right after I purchase tickets to travel home or before to travel here to visit Luis, etc a big accident like this occurs.

That's kind of creepy, if your intuition says not to fly then dont for a while.

[Krikit 1,164]

How horrible.

[Marina-Del 10]

Yeah, just saw this as opening Globo Online for my morning Brazil news. This is horrible, something tells me it's gonna be indeed baaaaaad, but still I hope they somehow made an emergency landing and are found on rescue boats or something. Slim chances, I know, but can't help but hope.

On a side note, I should stop flying, every year right after I purchase tickets to travel home or before to travel here to visit Luis, etc a big accident like this occurs.

There have seemed like A LOT of air accidents lately....

Is it that I didn't pay attention before or have the numbers increased?

This is really sad news

[Anna C. 4]

Ugh just read it on Drudge, how horrible. It is weird how the transponder doesn't work... I hope they will find the jet, hopefully by some miracle people survived. You never know.

I don't think there are that many air accidents, air travel is still way safer than traveling by car (if you compare injuries and death rates).

[almaty 19]

terrible and sad....

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

This sucks. No point in pretending that there'll be a happy ending for anyone on board that jet. It's all gone.

[Ladylethal 12]

Yeah, just saw this as opening Globo Online for my morning Brazil news. This is horrible, something tells me it's gonna be indeed baaaaaad, but still I hope they somehow made an emergency landing and are found on rescue boats or something. Slim chances, I know, but can't help but hope.

On a side note, I should stop flying, every year right after I purchase tickets to travel home or before to travel here to visit Luis, etc a big accident like this occurs.

There have seemed like A LOT of air accidents lately....

Is it that I didn't pay attention before or have the numbers increased?

This is really sad news

Yep, there's been an increase indeed, my husband is worried about our trip.

[Marina-Del 10]

Just from CNN

The airline company identified the nationalities of the victims as two Americans, an Argentinean, an Austrian, a Belgian, 58 Brazilians, five British, a Canadian, nine Chinese, a Croatian, a Dane, a Dutch, an Estonian, a Filipino, 61 French, a Gambian, 26 Germans, four Hungarians, three Irish, one Icelandic, nine Italians, five Lebanese, two Moroccans, three Norwegians, two Polish, one Romanian, one Russian, three Slovakian, two Spanish, one Swedish, six Swiss and one Turk.

Among the passengers were 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby, in addition to the 12 crew members, Air France officials in Brazil said.

Not much new information, but some.

The whole article is here: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas...azil/index.html

Edited June 2, 2009 by Marina-Del

[Precious 2]

Sad. I once worked with the Conductor Silvio Barbato, who was in the plane.

I emailed a friend in my former job asking if the French I used to work for were OK. She told me they were all safe. She also told me that, an ex-colleague was saved by having a travel authorization denied by my ex-boss, who said he had to fly with Swissair instead, because the fare was cheaper than Air France

As they say in Brazil, he was saved by the bell.

[Ladylethal 12]

On a side note, I should stop flying, every year right after I purchase tickets to travel home or before to travel here to visit Luis, etc a big accident like this occurs.

That's kind of creepy, if your intuition says not to fly then dont for a while.

Nah, I don't usually get a feeling about it at all, either the lapse of time between big crashes coincide with my travels or I'm more aware of them when I actually plan to fly.

Either way my flight is not for another 2 months.