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Air France Jet disappears from radar

Air France Rio-Paris flight missing with 228 aboard
15 mins ago
PARIS (Reuters) – An Air France plane on its way from Brazil to Paris has disappeared from radar screens, the Paris airports authority said on Monday.

Flight AF 447 had 228 people on board, Air France said.

It left Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. and was expected in Paris on Monday at 11:15 a.m. (0915 GMT), a spokesman for the airports authority said.

Its last known location was unclear.

An Air France-KLM spokeswoman in Amsterdam said there had been no radio contact with the missing plane "for a while".

The people on board are 216 passengers and 12 crew.

The plane was an Airbus 330-200, airport authorities said.

(Reporting by Jean-Baptiste Vey; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Air France says the Airbus jet that disappeared en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through an area of strong turbulence.

Air France says in a statement the plane that carried 228 on board "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence" at 10:00 p.m. ET Sunday.

It says "an automatic message was received at 10:14 p.m. ET Sunday signaling electrical circuit malfunction."

It says the 216 passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men.

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Quote:

BRASILIA, Brazil — An airplane seat, a life jacket, metallic debris and signs of fuel were found in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday by Brazilian military pilots searching for a missing Air France airliner.

The debris was spotted from the air about 410 miles (650 kilometers) north of the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, roughly along the path that the jet was taking before it disappeared with 228 people on board, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.

There were no signs of life in two sightings of separate debris areas about 60 kilometers (35 miles) apart.

"The locations where the objects were found are towards the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted," Amaral said. "That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis."

Amaral said authorities would not be able to confirm that the debris is from the plane until they can retrieve some of it from the ocean for identification. Brazilian military ships are not expected to arrive at the area until Wednesday.

The discovery came more than 24 hours after the jet bound from Rio de Janeiro to Paris went missing, with all feared dead.

Rescuers were still scanning a vast sweep of ocean extending from far off northeastern Brazil to waters off West Africa. The 4-year-old Airbus A330 was last heard from at 0214 GMT Monday (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday).

Investigators on both sides of the ocean were trying to determine what brought it down. Potential causes included shifting winds and hail from towering thunderheads, lightning or a combination of other factors.

An automatic message sent from the plane just before it disappeared said that the plane was losing pressure and had experienced an electrical failure.

____

Associated Press Writers Bradley Brooks and Alan Clendenning contributed from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

RIP .................. :(

GB TFS

The Drudge report mentions that a bomb threat occurred prior to departure of the aircraft. The link is broken; however, a cached copy exists.

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache...s&client=opera

Interesting development.

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

Here is a link that discusses the thunderstorm the plane may have flown through.

May all Rest In Peace!

Air France officials this morning said it either "Broke up in flight or when it hit the water".

Duh!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Utah Bob (Post 268166)

Air France officials this morning said it either "Broke up in flight or when it hit the water".

Duh!

From my experience dealing with Brazil, they will resist the notion that it was blown up in the sky until there is absolute proof on that fact. Even if it did explode in the sky, it could have been mechanical failure. But, the idea that a bomb placed in the A/C had anything to do with it will be refuted until there is no other choice. Brazil's stance is that there are no terrorists in their country and if the idea that it came apart in the sky takes hold, it will lead many to make that leap of judgement and assume that terrorism might have been involved. In any case, I believe it desintegrated in mid-air - maybe due to some kind of mechanical malfunction, or just mother nature - because the pilots did not even send a distress signal. What ever happened, must have occured very fast.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Utah Bob (Post 268166)

Air France officials this morning said it either "Broke up in flight or when it hit the water".

Duh!

They said on our news channel that they thought that the plane may have experienced "100 MPH"winds!!!!!!! :(

GB TFS :munchin

Quote:

Originally Posted by greenberetTFS (Post 268224)

They said on our news channel that they thought that the plane may have experienced "100 MPH"winds!!!!!!! :(

GB TFS :munchin

Wow! Whatever happened, I can't help but imagine what those people may have gone through. This is so sad.

I wonder if these guys were asleep. Who, cruising at 35,000', looks at a 50,000' wall of Cumulonimbus Ohmygodus and thinks to himself "Piece of cake!"?

Even without WX RDR they'd have a very impressive, towering, light show...to scare the crap out of them!

Pat