Plane with 228 people missing over Atlantic

[the4thpip]

PARIS (Reuters) – An Air France plane with 228 people on board disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean on its way from Brazil to Paris on Monday after hitting strong turbulence and French officials said they feared a disaster.

The Brazilian force said the Airbus jet was well advanced over the sea when it went missing and military planes took off from both South America and Africa to hunt for the plane.

"We are probably facing an air catastrophe," Air France Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told reporters:

Air France said the airliner sent an automatic message reporting an electrical fault at 0214 GMT, roughly 15 minutes after the plane flew through a stormy area with strong turbulence.

Flight AF 447 left Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. (2200 GMT) and had been expected to land at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday at 11:15 a.m. (0915 GMT).

The carrier said 216 passengers were on board, including seven children and one baby, and 12 crew members. Air France said the pilots were highly experienced.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090601/ts_nm/us_france_plane_11

I always felt pretty safe on my many trans-atlantic flights because so little happens on those big planes but... damn.

[4PointOh]

I wish you hadn't posted this. How awful. Please let them be okay.

[Jae Namkyoung]

:frown: How sad this is not the way to start my morning, however, I certaintly do have the same wishes in that everyone is alright ...

[Charles RB]

Ah shit. :frown:

[Michael P]

Hopefully, they'll all be found safe and healthy, and not be forced to go through upwards of four years of increasingly implausible and nonsensical trials and tribulations.

[Cam63]

I just saw it on the news.

I'm afraid there's no hope they survived.

[Tobias March]

That's awful. :frown:

[Stressfactor]

What's doubly scary is the fact that the whole plane just vanished without a trace -- there was no distress signal, no word from the pilots that anything was wrong just one minute the plane is on the radar then... *poof* gone.

I hope they at least find the wreckage -- I hope the families of those lost can find SOME peace.

[Cam63]

It was reported the pilot stated they had an electrical short.

[Lester C.]

Shouldn't the black box still be sending a signal? Also don't planes float?

[Stressfactor]

It was reported the pilot stated they had an electrical short.Yeah, but that's not "Mayday, Mayday, we're going down!"

[Sean Walsh]

It now appears that the plane may've been hit by lightning.

......the Yahoo article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090601/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_plane) quotes an expert as saying that he's can't remember the last time any plane's been hit by lightning, much less being taken down by lightning. :eek:

[Alan Lynch]

Shouldn't the black box still be sending a signal? Also don't planes float?
Depends what ahppened to the plane though, doesn't it? For the sake of the families I hope there's something on the surface to lead to the wreckage, but you put a big enough hole in anything and it's going to sink.

[Stressfactor]

It also depends on how the plane hits the water, the angle, and the condition of the water.

We saw this with the recent Hudson River landing. The pilot has to bring the plane in at not too steep a decent and then the surface of the water has to be pretty smooth because the pilot essentially has to skip the plane on the surface of the water like skipping a stone.

If the pilot did not have enough control over the plane and hit the water wrong the plane would break into pieces when it hit or it could stay mostly intact but quickly sink.

[Corrina]

What the plane that landed in the Hudson river did was amazing because conditions are hardly ever that perfect.

The flat surface of the water, for one. The skill of the pilots. The good visibility as well. And the presence of rescue boats that arrived with two minutes.

Without the rescue boats within minutes, they would have lost some people--the water was too cold for people to survive for very long.

I fear this plane is lost. The ocean was bound to be turbulent and whatever happened to this plane happened very fast, too fast for them to even broadcast what was the problem. If communications go out, it's quite likely it's because they were destroyed.

There's also the fact that this plane was at cruising altitude, and probably dropped fast if the loss of communication is any indication. The Hudson River plane had just started its ascent.

And even if some people got out during the storm, I'm not at all sure those rafts could survive a turbulent sea.

They might not even find a single body, though they might find the black box.

The sea swallows up its victims and always has.

Sorry to be so pessimistic.

[IvCNuB4]

Hopefully, they'll all be found safe and healthy, and not be forced to go through upwards of four years of increasingly implausible and nonsensical trials and tribulations.

I'm surprised this is the only "Lost" joke so far .....

[Sean Walsh]

I'm surprised this is the only "Lost" joke so far .....

I saw a few sources making LOST references this morning.

And although it's nice to think there will be survivors......the real world is too depressing to accomodate wishful thinking, especially at times like this. :-/

[IvCNuB4]

Yeah, today there are updates saying they think finding survivors is not going to happen. They did spot some wreckage today (http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/02/brazil.france.plane.missing/index.html) ( an airplane seat, lifevest, oil, etc) but they haven't confirmed yet if it's from this plane ....