Missing airliner had electrical fault

A search was continuing today for an airliner missing over the Atlantic with more than 200 people abroad as it was revealed the plane had an electrical problem. Air France said it received a message in the early hours of today from the Airbus A330 aircraft saying it had ``crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence''. It added that a message was received ``signalling electrical circuit malfunction'' on the plane, which was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The search for the plane - AF447, with 216 passengers and 12 crew abroad - was being carried out by the Brazilian air force. The aircraft, on which passengers included one baby and seven other children, took off from Rio at around 10pm UK time yesterday and was due to land at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris at around 10.15am GMT today. Contact with the plane was lost at around 3.20am GMT time.
June 1, 13:40

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_z36

This is so sad , but something we in the airline business fear everyday
i pray for those aboard and there familys....

priscilla


i-MAC newbie out of training

I always wondered that about people in your profession.

Do you fear your job that much? From the moment the plane takes off, until you land?

Visit the Basement

priscilla


i-MAC newbie out of training

AMEN

Been tempted to kiss the ground many times.


Last landing was April 1991 coming back from Iraq/Kuwait
Did kiss the ground that time.(Did'nt know at time it was my last though)

I don't have the statistics but it is still more dangerous to get into your car.

Ethan

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
"Why shouldn't the American people take half my money from me? I took it all from them." - Edward Filene

Very sad.

wonder what happened. there is talk now that ACARS reported decompression as well as the electrical failure.

hard to believe it was lightning....but we may never know. Let's hope they find it.

There was something on the news where a pilot that's an investigator in some capacity that said he found it hard to believe that lightning alone caused the accident.

That's because planes are hit with lightning all the time - even got a name for the effect, "St Elmo's Fire".

Explosive decompression would be more likely, whatever it was it was swift. I've done that route and remember bouncing through the tropical convergence zone, wasn't much fun.

Has a plane ever been damaged by ice in a thunder storm? If you get golf ball sized hail from thunder storms then that ice of that size is present in the storm being taken up by the updraft. I imagine a plane meeting large pieces of updraft or falling ice travelling at a decent speed could suffer.

This is certainly a very unusual case and may be a long time before wer get any answers. If ever depending on where in the Atlantic it is lying.

Or maybe it's passed through a hole in space time a la Stephen Kings "Langoliers".

It is also entirely possible that the reported electrical problem on the flight caused loss of control. That electrical shorting can under some circumstances be caused by lightning.

The Airbus planes all have Fly-by-Wire control systems in which the control instructions go to a computer and from there sent by electric wire to motors for the control surfaces. There is no direct mechanical connection from the pilot's controls to these surfaces.

I have flown several times through the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone, and the weather there where the northern and southern trade winds meet can be very rough and form huge thunderheads. It is somewhat analogous to a ship sailing south of the the South American or African continents, where there is open water around the entire circumference of the Earth at those latitudes, resulting in perpetualy rough seas.

Shelly

I remember flying with my father one time when we took off in the middle of a thunderstorm. Scariest takeoff ever! I had a window seat and as I looked out the window, I saw lightning flashing from cloud to cloud coming (what looked like) mere feet from the wing of the plane. That plus the plane bouncing up and down in all of the turbulence made me lose my appetite when they served the in-flight meal.

On our flight back from Disney World we encountered windy conditions during landing. Our landing consisted of a series of rapid drops followed by the plane slowly recovering. It was quite scary and, try as I might, I couldn't push the idea that we might crash out of my head. I was very relieved when the wheels touched the ground.

Plane debris found in path Air France jet took

Jun 2, 9:31 AM (ET)

By MARCO SIBAJA


BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - 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."


(AP) A man, looking for information on the Airfrance flight 447 that was reported missing on its way...
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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.

Shelly

I'm no expert, but I suspect it's more likely that whatever caused the crash caused the reported electrical failure than that an electrical failure was the prime cause of the crash. Nature is a powerful beast.

We will only know for certain if they can locate and retrieve the flight recorder. There is a pretty decent chance of that now that they have located some surface debris. The recorder has a beeper that will transmit for up to 30 days. Even under water it can have a range of a few miles.

Shelly

Another Air France plane got bomb threat

PARIS, June 3 (UPI) -- Aviation authorities said an Air France Buenos Aires-to-Paris flight was was grounded temporarily because of a bomb threat that turned out to be false.

Officials at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza International Airport delayed an Air France flight
from the Argentine city to Paris May 27 after the bomb threat was called in, The Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

Federal police and airport safety officers inspected the plane and cleared it for take-off, Argentine media reported. The search lasted about 90 minutes, and passengers were not evacuated from the aircraft.

Air France Flight 447, with 216 passengers and 12 crew members, went off radar about three hours after departing Rio de Janeiro for Paris Monday. French investigators said wreckage presumably from the plane was found in the Atlantic off the northeastern coast of Brazil.

Shelly

In view of the bomb threat for another Air France flight a few days earlier, and the fact that two debris fields were found, which indicates the plane broke up while still at altitude, this may have been a successful terrorist bomb attack.

Shelly

You mean 'Man-Caused Disaster' don't you Shelly?

Johnny


Obama: “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this can be solved, but it’s important for him to give me space,”
Obama: “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE5501PB20090603