It's being reported that an Air France flight carrying 216 pax &12 crew from Brazil to France has gone off the radar. More news as i find it...
AirSpace - more than just hot air
Reports from the BBC says that Air traffic control lost contact with the plane around 0600 GMT, moments after it took off from Rio bound for France.
Aircraft involved is F-GZCP according to ACARS reports.
Titch
Vidi, Vici, Veni. I saw, I conquered, I came.
Image of an Air France A330/200
Quoted from another site:
"At 03.30am (French time), the pilot was in conversation with their company and was reporting hard turbulence and the conversation was cut off".
With respect to all those involved, it's already been reported by various sources that the weather was particularly bad in that area of the Atlantic. Could we be looking at in-flight disintergration due to extreme weather?
Strange the BBC is reporting a search being launched around the Island of Ferrando De Noronha of the Brazilian coast , which is a long way from Moroccan coast!. Very worrying that the aircraft has been lost when in cruise , without any mayday messages being reported . Suggests whatever went wrong was very quick . I expect the next few hours things will become clearer.
Airfrance said that received a message from the A330 at 23:14 (02:14 GMT) the message informed a short-curcuit after the turbulence. The last radar contact was at 23:22 (02:22 GMT) when the aircraft had already passed the Fernando De Noronha Island.
I'll inform any news.
odd that a plane just falls out of the sky? turbulance & lightning??? hurricane hunter c-130s do that all the time. had to have been something really bad & really quick.
Just a quick note to readers who are not familiar with what are sometimes termed Intertropical Convergence Zones (ITCZ). These equatorial regions of very high buildups of Cumulo Nimbus are quite normal and, using onboard weather radar, an aircraft can readily be steered around the more intense areas of heavy precipitation and turbulence, including hail. But it does take patience and may involve quite large diversions off planned track. I spent many years traversing/penetrating ITCZs in the Papua New Guinea region at Flight Levels of about 16 - 20,000 feet, and can recall no serious problems as long as one did not try to "rush" the process. Lightning is common and frequent with lightning strikes being a fairly regular occurrence world-wide. I write this item only to stress to the public and non-aviation media, that such weather is absolutely normal and as long as pilots follow long-established procedures, there is no reason for an aircraft to be placed in danger.
As someone who isn't an aerospace professional, one thing that puzzles me about this tragic incident is that the search area seems to be very vague. The plane systems reported problems and I would have expected that the data transmitted would have included GPS coordinates, giving an accurate plot, at least at that moment. Is it the case that positional data isn't transmitted in such problem reports or is it rather that, if the aircraft did break up (or flew on for a while after reporting the problems), then it is still difficult to localise the point where it ditched?
It would be a major issue for the A330 series if the technical issues that caused the Qantas in flight incidents was partly the cause of this. Seeing as the absolute reason for the Qantas incidents has not been finalised - only narrowed down at this point - the question of recurring failures leaves the A330 fleet exposed to some serious concerns.
Let's hope that the investigators can narrow down the cause quickly and take any doubt away from the operation of the type.
jackal9999: It would be a major issue for the A330 series if the technical issues that caused the Qantas in flight incidents was partly the cause of this. Seeing as the absolute reason for the Qantas incidents has not been finalised - only narrowed down at this point - the question of recurring failures leaves the A330 fleet exposed to some serious concerns. Let's hope that the investigators can narrow down the cause quickly and take any doubt away from the operation of the type.
You're right. I am not sure but think it was an Singapore Airlines A330-300 that had the same type of incident. If this type of electronic malfunction happened coincident with lighting strike (or result of) plus decompression (as rumoured), then it would set the aircraft up for a set of non-recoverable consequences. Very messy considering the issue is still vague.
No-one has even hinted at terrorism in this thread. I wonder why. Remember Air India off the Irish coast?
jackal9999: You're right. I am not sure but think it was an Singapore Airlines A330-300 that had the same type of incident. If this type of electronic malfunction happened coincident with lighting strike (or result of) plus decompression (as rumoured), then it would set the aircraft up for a set of non-recoverable consequences. Very messy considering the issue is still vague. No-one has even hinted at terrorism in this thread. I wonder why. Remember Air India off the Irish coast?
BBC now reporting some 'wreckage' found.....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8079122.stm
Brazilian Air Force found debris at 650KM Northeast of Fernando de Noronha but said it needs to identify any serial number before definetly linking it to Air France AF 447.
The debris were first located by the Air Force Airplane R-99 6751 whose radar detected metallic and non metallic parts. This position would indicate (if confirmed) a route change for the Air France flight and the Brazilian Air Force said it would concentrate efforets around the new location in order to try to confirm it.
Hopefully the reasons for this tragedy will be clarified.
I wopuld like to offer my condolences and prayers to the relatives and friends of all affected by this tragedy.