666 replies to this topic

[AirFranceSST]

Repose en paix.

[Invisiblemoose]

For those saying not to speculate -- come on, this is a discussion forum, what're we supposed to do if not speculate? I logged on here hoping for some speculation.

I wouldn't rule out a lightning strike.

This is terrible.

[aviatordom]

.Sam., on Jun 1 2009, 05:05 PM, said:

http://www.airliners...df5440413c3fdc1

Its weird and scary to look at this picture, as its just disappeared with 200+ odd lives, but this is Air France F-GZCP - The exact plane thats gone missing,

CP was delivered in March 2005, just 4 years old. According to flightglobal it last recieved maintenance on April 16th.

It's chilling to know that this happened to such a famous & popular carrier from such a safe continent, Europe

[WF10]

.Sam., on Jun 1 2009, 05:05 PM, said:

http://www.airliners...df5440413c3fdc1

Its weird and scary to look at this picture, as its just disappeared with 200+ odd lives, but this is Air France F-GZCP - The exact plane thats gone missing,

How is that in any way weird?? There is a picture of it on every news site you go on surely??  

[FlightSimmer0724]

[Update 16:00 UTC]






PARIS (Reuters) – An Air France plane with 228 people on board was presumed to have crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Monday after hitting heavy turbulence during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

The airline offered its condolences to the families of the passengers, making clear it did not expect to find survivors.

At least 60 of those on board were French, roughly 60 were Brazilians and two were Slovaks, their countries said.

Air France said the Airbus flew into stormy weather four hours after take-off from Brazil and soon afterwards sent an automatic message reporting electrical faults.

A company spokesman said several of the plane's mechanisms had malfunctioned.

"It is probably a combination of circumstances that could have led to the crash," he said, adding that the airliner might have been hit by lightning.

Aviation experts said lightning strikes on planes were common and were not enough alone to explain a disaster.

The Brazilian air force said the plane was far out over the sea when it went missing.

Military planes took off from the island of Fernando de Noronha off Brazil's northeast coast to look for it and the Brazilian navy sent three ships to help in the search.

France sent one of its air force planes from west Africa.

Flight AF 447 left Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. (4:00 p.m. EDT) and had been expected to land at Paris's Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday at 11:15 a.m.

STORM PATCH

On its flight northeast from Rio, the jetliner would have had to pass through a notorious storm patch shifting around the equator known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone.

"It is a zone in the tropics where you can have particularly deep thunder clouds," said Barry Gromett, a meteorologist at the London Weather Center.

The carrier said 216 passengers were on board, including seven children and one baby, as well as 12 crew members.

The passenger list was not released, but French tire company Michelin said the head of its Latin American operations, Luis Roberto Anastacio, had been on the flight.

Tearful relatives and friends were led away by airport staff after they arrived at Roissy expecting to greet the passengers.

About 20 relatives of passengers also arrived at Rio's Galeao airport on Monday morning seeking information.

Bernardo Souza, whose brother and sister-in-law were on the flight, complained he had received no details from Air France.

"I had to come to the airport, but when I arrived I just found an empty counter," he said.

Senior French government minister Jean-Louis Borloo ruled out the possibility of a hijacking.

"It's an awful tragedy," he told France Info radio.

If no survivors are found it will be the worst loss of life involving an Air France plane in the firm's 75-year history.

The plane was an Airbus 330-200 powered with General Electric engines. If the plane is confirmed to have crashed, it would be the first time an A330 has been lost during an operational airline flight.

Air France said the plane had 18,870 flight hours on the clock and went into service in April 2005. It last underwent maintenance in a hangar in April this year.

The last major incident involving an Air France plane was in July 2000 when one of its Concorde supersonic airliners crashed just after taking off from Paris, bound for New York.

All 109 people on board were killed along with at least four on the ground.

(Additional reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey, Gerard Bon, Astrid Wendlandt and Tim Hepher in Paris, Pedro Fonseca in Rio; editing by Crispian Balmer and Richard Meares)

Read Article Here: http://news.yahoo.co...us_france_plane

[.Sam.]

Quote

The passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men.

[Invisiblemoose]

WF09, on Jun 1 2009, 12:22 PM, said:

.Sam., on Jun 1 2009, 05:05 PM, said:

http://www.airliners...df5440413c3fdc1

Its weird and scary to look at this picture, as its just disappeared with 200+ odd lives, but this is Air France F-GZCP - The exact plane thats gone missing,

How is that in any way weird?? There is a picture of it on every news site you go on surely??  

To think that something so big and stable and concrete and familiar just vanished over the Atlantic with 228 lives... The image invokes a peculiar feeling to me as well...

[.Sam.]

Quote

http://www.airliners...df5440413c3fdc1

Its weird and scary to look at this picture, as its just disappeared with 200+ odd lives, but this is Air France F-GZCP - The exact plane thats gone missing,

Quote

How is that in any way weird?? There is a picture of it on every news site you go on surely?? hmm.gif

Quote

To think that something so big and stable and concrete and familiar just vanished over the Atlantic with 228 lives... The image invokes a peculiar feeling to me as well..

.

I mean weird in a scary way, not a strange way, sorry. I mean its scary to think that the plane in that exact picture as stable and secure as it looks is out there somewhere. I just feel for the families so much it must be so scary.

[WF10]

Invisiblemoose, on Jun 1 2009, 05:25 PM, said:

WF09, on Jun 1 2009, 12:22 PM, said:

.Sam., on Jun 1 2009, 05:05 PM, said:

http://www.airliners...df5440413c3fdc1

Its weird and scary to look at this picture, as its just disappeared with 200+ odd lives, but this is Air France F-GZCP - The exact plane thats gone missing,

How is that in any way weird?? There is a picture of it on every news site you go on surely??  

To think that something so big and stable and concrete and familiar just vanished over the Atlantic with 228 lives... The image invokes a peculiar feeling to me as well...

Not what I said, but whatever.  

[_TW_]

Terrible tragedy for sure.  I just hope they find some clues as to where this bird is right now and/or where it went down.

[THBatMan8]

Invisiblemoose, on Jun 1 2009, 12:15 PM, said:

For those saying not to speculate -- come on, this is a discussion forum, what're we supposed to do if not speculate? I logged on here hoping for some speculation.

I wouldn't rule out a lightning strike.

This is terrible.

I agree that this is a discussion forum, but no debris has been found yet (to my knowledge). So I'm not quite calling it a crash yet until that is found. FAIK, they may have successfully ditched the aircraft somewhere. I'm hoping for the best, but assuming the worst has happened.

[rabbitweasel]

I suppose there still is the possibility that they did successfully ditch though it sounds like "from what we think we know so far" that they were having major electrical problems and were involuntarily forced to ditch most likely uncontrolled.

Still it's almost 100% certain that it crashed. At least there is much work force to find it. This isn't no Adam Air incident where it takes days to find the wreckage.

[George Bush]

No way you can really ditch over the atlantic ocean. Especially if it's far from land you get gigantic waves that would tear the plane apart, it probably lost it's navigation systems, unlikely they made it to land. Now it's just a matter of finding them. We should make a collective RIP sig for this like we did for the Spainair crash to show our respects (but of course we wait until we get comfirmation).

Edited by George Bush, 01 June 2009 - 12:39 PM.

[davie18]

^ I agree too early to say RIP yet. Until they find the wreckage there is still hope.

Apparently there were a few britons on the plane as well.

Must be horrible for the families at the moment, just waiting and hoping that there are some survivors. But it doesn't look promising

Edited by davie18, 01 June 2009 - 12:41 PM.

[THBatMan8]

George Bush, on Jun 1 2009, 01:38 PM, said:

No way you can really ditch over the atlantic ocean. Especially if it's far from land you get gigantic waves that would tear the plane apart, it probably lost it's navigation systems, unlikely they made it to land. Now it's just a matter of finding them. We should make a collective RIP sig for this like we did for the Spainair crash (but of course we wait until we get comfirmation).

I agree though it's not completely impossible (but the weather didn't make circumstances better either), that's why I said I was hoping for the best but assuming the worst happened.

Edited by Da Speznas, 01 June 2009 - 12:48 PM.

[davie18]

here is a list of the nationalities of the passengers:
# South Africa 1
# 26 Allemands 26 Germans
# 2 Américains 2 Americans
# 1 Argentin 1 Argentina
# 1 Autrichien 1 Austrian
# 1 Belge Belgian 1
# 58 Brésiliens 58 Brazilians
# 5 Britanniques 5 Britons
# 1 Canadien 1 Canadian
# 9 Chinois 9 Chinese
# 1 Croate 1 Croatian
# 1 Danois 1 Danish
# 2 Espagnols 2 Spanish
# 1 Estonien 1 Estonian
# 61 Français 61 French
# 1 Gambien Gambia 1
# 4 Hongrois 4 Hungarian
# 3 Irlandais Irish 3
# 1 Islandais 1 Icelandic
# 9 Italiens 9 Italy
# 5 Libanais 5 Lebanese
# 2 Marocains 2 Moroccans
# 1 Néerlandais 1 Dutch
# 3 Norvégiens 3 Norwegians
# 1 Philippin 1 Filipino
# 2 Polonais 2 Polish
# 1 Roumain 1 Romanian
# 1 Russe 1 Russian
# 3 Slovaques 3 Slovakians
# 1 Suédois 1 Swedish
# 6 Suisses 6 Swiss
# 1 Turc Turkish 1

Quite a wide range of nationalities.

Edited by davie18, 01 June 2009 - 12:49 PM.

[AirFranceSST]

I'm hoping they were able to ditch the plane in the water and come to a safe stop like USAir Flight 1549.

If this happened, than it is possible that people have survived. Even as we speak they could be floating out there waiting to be rescued.

[George Bush]

AirFranceSST, on Jun 1 2009, 08:50 PM, said:

I'm hoping they were able to ditch the plane in the water and come to a safe stop like USAir Flight 1549.

If this happened, than it is possible that people have survived. Even as we speak they could be floating out there waiting to be rescued.

USAir 1459 landed in a docile river very close to 2 adjacent shores.

This aircraft probably ditched many hundreds of miles offshore in the atlantic ocean, there are humongous waves once you get hundreds of miles into the atlantic ocean, bigger than you can imagine. It's not quite the same scene

[AirFranceSST]

Well I'm just hoping that there will be survivors.

[WF10]

5 britons.