Air France plane missing over the Atlantic

[Matt Molnar]

It's been pretty certain, but it's more or less official as of a few minutes ago...

Wreckage spotted in the Atlantic Ocean is "without a doubt" from the Air France jet that disappeared en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro with 228 people on board, Brazil's defense minister said on Tuesday.

A Brazilian Hercules plane on a search mission for the missing passenger jet saw a band of wreckage along a 5-km (3-mile) strip, Nelson Jobim told a news conference.

"It confirms that the plane fell in this area," he said. (Reporting by Maria Pia Palermo; writing by Brian Ellsworth; editing by Stuart Grudgings and John O'Callaghan)

[MarkLawrence]

As I saw reported somewhere else - the race is now on for the black boxes - they only emit their signal for 30 days. That's, if they can be found, going to be the tell-tale story if what happened.

[PhilDernerJr]

Anyone know the capabilities of modern diving vessels in water as deep at 7000 meters? More importantly...cant the CVR and FDR even survive in water that deep?

[N101CV]

Anyone know the capabilities of modern diving vessels in water as deep at 7000 meters? More importantly...cant the CVR and FDR even survive in water that deep?

I was thinking that and according to what they are saying the area where they suspect the impact took place is a very ridge filled area.

[Matt Molnar]

Anyone know the capabilities of modern diving vessels in water as deep at 7000 meters? More importantly...cant the CVR and FDR even survive in water that deep?

7,000 meters would be nearly impossible...

* The beacons on the boxes only operate down to 14,000 feet, about 4,300 meters
* A report from the US Navy says, in theory, they could retrieve one from 6,000 meters
* The deepest ever retrieved was from 4,200 meters, after the crash of South African 295 in the Indian Ocean

:arrow: Retrieving Air France black box will be epic task [Reuters]

[PhilDernerJr]

Yikes. I hope that 7000 meters depth is wrong.

[Matt Molnar]

Tomorrow's giant, pointless headline: Bomb threat reported against Air France flight in Buenos Aires four days earlier.

I don't think authorities should rule out terrorism just yet, but it seems unlikely these events would be related. I'm sure airlines as large as Air France receive bomb threats pretty frequently.

[hiss srq]

An interesting note that was brought to my attention by a friend in conversation that would make sense though totally tossing any other ideas out the window I had thought of is this. The TAM crew that initially spotted the wreckage reportedly spotted several "points of orange light" I.E. fire on the water below. If the airplane broke up in flight as many are suspecting and there was fire on the water. This would lead to suspicion of of a possible bomb or explosion in flight.

[PhilDernerJr]

I don't see how fire on the water would lead to that.

Right now, my personal hypothesis that I've developed with some people I've spoken with is that the aircraft went into the severe storm and encountered very severe turbulence, hitting a pocket of air that caused a hard drop and loss of control. Maybe the cockpit crew was very relaxed with the "seats back" and the Captain in the bathroom during this time, and they simply were not able to recover, and the plane broke apart due to overspeed.

That would still cause a fire as it broke up and flames would still be present among the pieces and liquids floating after splash.

[bluejuice]

I glanced over at A-net for an answer to this question. "If ACARS can transmit info back to AF headquarters,Why cant voice be sent the same way?'' I understand that most voice communications is VHF and it has a limited range. Can someone give me an answer.

[fly.mcs]

I truly feel for these families and the people onboard; my condolences to them all.

I just have a question ..why does Air France continue to use flight number 447, even in these few days after the accident? I remember after the ditching of flight US Airways 1549, the airline cancelled AWE1549 in the following days and replaced it with AWE1543, if I recall correctly..

[Mellyrose]

I truly feel for these families and the people onboard; my condolences to them all.

I just have a question ..why does Air France continue to use flight number 447, even in these few days after the accident? I remember after the ditching of flight US Airways 1549, the airline cancelled AWE1549 in the following days and replaced it with AWE1543, if I recall correctly..

Are they really? That IS very surprising.


Found this on Anet forums. Very detailed meteorological analysis for those interested:

http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/

[MarkLawrence]

Found this on Anet forums. Very detailed meteorological analysis for those interested:

http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/

Thanks Mel for posting that - it is the most amazing read!

[LGA777]

I truly feel for these families and the people onboard; my condolences to them all.

I just have a question ..why does Air France continue to use flight number 447, even in these few days after the accident? I remember after the ditching of flight US Airways 1549, the airline cancelled AWE1549 in the following days and replaced it with AWE1543, if I recall correctly..

Well first of all re US you are correct. The following days and beyonds flight number was changed to 1543 LGA-CLT-SEA about 3 hours after the accident. It was already scheduled to change to Flight 1867 and upgrade back to the normal A-321 in that time slot for the Feburary schedule.

This is standard industry practice and at most airlines the flight number is permantly retired.

Re Air France 447 is not daily, for example today only 443, the daily 744 is operating. In my CRS computer, 447 still shows operating tommorow, this is unaccapetable, and Air France should have acted with in hours of this tragedy to change the number. The time it takes to update to other airline's CRS systems should be able to be changed in a matter of hours, 24 at the most, not days. I just tried to book a flight from GIG to CDG on airfrance.com for late June on the days two flights operate it still offers me Flight 447, UNBELIVABLE Air France, you dropped the ball here big time !

Regards

LGA777

[fly.mcs]

Yes, I was tracking AFR447 last night (02JUN09).. It departed GIG at 19.06, arriving CDG at 11.19. And while AWE1549 was a successful ditching with no fatalities (thank God), that number was still changed. I hope AF decides to change it very soon! Some might not be so thrilled..