Air France plane missing?

[mocus1]

uh oh

"The French president is socialist-communist"......that's strange, when he was elected, Sarkozy was called a "right wing conservative".......what evidence is there that he's a communist? Also, terrorists have declared war on the West, and they don't care what continent you're on or what airport you're at. When are you guys going to quit discounting terrorism immediately, quit talking about hailstones and other nonsense and follow the evidence? It happened before in Lockerbie, maybe it happened again. Quit listening to the left wing nitwits in the media and follow the evidence. The evidence is beginning to point toward terrorism.

[CotterPin]

From which terrorist group?...there are few in South America, and the french president is socialist-communist, so I doubt he or his government has enemies in South America.

Something on the order of a shoe-bomb, makes a lot of sense, as it would fatally injure the plane, but not the point where it would be immediately disabled.

Though, the AP is reporting that the plane broke apart in flight, according to the size and length of the debris field. It is not thought that the size of the debris field is due to ocean currents or impact, alone.

Of course, the breakup of the plane, if it did indeed breakup could be due to an almost limitless number of possibilities both aerodynamic and weather related.

Again, the bottom line is, no one "appears" to know the cause at this point.

[seahawk]

And suddenly it is a bomb. No wonder when France is leading the investigation on the crash of an AIRBUS.

Highly unlikely imho. The failure of the flight control system of the Qantas A333 points in a clear direction. Most likely the weather was nothing more then a contributing factor to yet another major design fault in an Airbus.

[shamrock]

The BBC have this diagram of the plane's track on their site, looks like they were trying to get between the thunderstorms..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8080290.stm

Incidently, also amongst the passengers were 3 members of the Rio de Janeiro judiciary, and several high level industrialists from Michelin, Petrobas & Thyssenkrupp.

Devastating accident for all involved.

[Alessandro]

This is a horrible accident. However, I'm convinced we will eventually get to the bottom of this.

Very few airline accidents happen without an explanation. The tough situation here, obviously, is how to find the CVR. The crash site is in the middle of the Atlantic and is very deep. It could take years before it is found, if ever.

All we can do is wait to see if more evidence of the plane is found.

Can we safely assume that since there was no pan-pan or may day transmission that the cockpit crew were incapicitated from sudden cabin decompression?

It just seems odd that there was absolutely no emergency transmission - maybe total electrical/communcations failure?

Godspeed to the passengers, families, and Air France.

It can be so many reasons behind this crash, an air-to-air crash with a illegal flight is another possibility, the "cocain-corridor" from South America to West Africa runs along there.

[Dantheman]

I too have the same view. I have never spent this much time wondering about any air tragedy as I have with this one.

The given is that the debris field is about 3 miles long. And as of this writing, the Brazilian navy ship(s) are closing in on the debris. We should see pictures of the debris soon.

Oh, and the US is also assisting the search operations using spy satellites. (not to mention)

[Quench]

Elb

Anyone know why light aircraft are required to have an emergency locator beacon which activates on impact, but commercial aircraft do not.
They could have something that floats.

[shamrock]

Air France have put a memo on their site regarding the memorial service in Paris today (added to their site yesterday)..

Paris, 02 June 2009 - 21:26 local time
Memo to the press
Inter-religious ceremony wednesday 3 June

In respect for the mourning of the relatives and friends of the victims, we inform the press that they will not be able to attend the inter-religious ceremony to be held inside Notre Dame cathedral tomorrow at 4pm. There will be a sound broadcast of the ceremony on the square outside the cathedral.

I am pleased they have taken that step, it saves the families from running the gauntlet of the media when they really do not need to have to deal with them and it stops the media turning the whole thing into some ghoulish carnival. The fact that there is no wreckage on land for the media to gawk at and photograph is also a good thing in many respects, the relatives know their loved ones have perished, they probably do not need to see media footage of bits of plane and personal possessions bobbing about in the sea as has been the case in the past when crashes have been relatively close to landfall.

The worst part is that the relatives will not have anywhere to go and mourn. Other accidents that were at sea such as Swissair and TWA were reasonably close to landfall so a memorial could be built as a centerpiece for people to go and say their goodbye's or share a few moments on birthdays or at Christmas, but this accident is so far out at sea, it is probably impossible to have any memorial like that, and chances are that unlike the Swissair and TWA flights, there probably won't be much in the way of body recovery either, so the families will have nothing tangible to remember their loved ones by, and that is especially devastating.

[shamrock]

The BBC will be televising a press briefing by Air France at 10am BST

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7927039.stm

Those outside the UK should try this link...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7926576.stm

[Alex - Spot-This !]

the french president is socialist-communist

You can't be serious right ??? Sarkozy is a right wing conservativ and there's NOTHING socialist in him, not to talk about communism...

[shamrock]

OK...technical question for those 'in the know'

There have been comparisons drawn tween this accident and that of the two Qantas incidents last year. The reason why pundits are saying there can be no real comparison is that the Air France ADIRU was a Honeywell and the Qantas were Northrop-Grumman.

Is it possible to fit the NG part into the space taken by the Honeywell, do they have they same wiring etc?

Could they be fitted by mistake...as per the case with the crashed Tunisian ATR 72 that had an fuel gauge that belonged in an ATR 42 by mistake...?

Is it at all plausable that a genuine error such as this could be made?

[Dantheman]

The flight data recorders on commercial aircraft have underwater locater beacons.

Anyone know why light aircraft are required to have an emergency locator beacon which activates on impact, but commercial aircraft do not.
They could have something that floats.

[Evan]

Anyone know why light aircraft are required to have an emergency locator beacon which activates on impact, but commercial aircraft do not.
They could have something that floats.

The boxes are internally mounted and wired to the aircraft. What good would it do to give them floatation? I saw this suggestion on the NY Times blog as well. Logic just seems to be missing at sea.

[eTang]

What evidence do we have that the weather was involved as a causal factor in the crash, other that the weather and the crash coexisting?

Since mostly everybody around here looks willing to speculate that the weather was a major factor in this crash, let me speculate that it had nothing to do with it.

=> => => => => => =>

Drudge is reporting there was a bomb threat against Air France which originated in South America just a few days before the crash. The plot thickens......Lockerbie anyone?

How much later Lockerbie attack was claimed by terrorist? Not immediatly, right?

From which terrorist group?...there are few in South America, and the french president is socialist-communist, so I doubt he or his government has enemies in South America.

Not necessarily in South America! Perhaps just south of France? AFAIK France arrested a couple of "radical political activists" (to be politically correct) recently!

May 27, 2009: 'The airport safety delayed an AIR FRANCE flight this evening before departing for Paris immediately after the company received a bomb threat over the phone at the airport of Ezeiza [Buenos Aires]'

This is an information which actually intregues me!


A german (boulevard) site quotes now that because of the large area the aircraft debris was found in on the ocean an mid-air explosion seems likely (can anybody confirm this: would this really be a too large area to find debris after disintegration on water contact/impact?) ...

... could it be authorities do not mention a word about the terrorist attack possibility just not to interfere with investigations?

[dr_cfii]

From which terrorist group?...there are few in South America, and the french president is socialist-communist, so I doubt he or his government has enemies in South America.

With this dumb statement, you immediately discredited everything you said before. Get off that Bush era crap, and don't onvolve it here...