Air France plane missing over the Atlantic

[nikon50bigma]

But since this is a modern aircraft wouldn't it have had the instruments onboard need to predict and 'see' the thunderstorm... like doppler rader or something like that for weather? Or even if they didn't have instruments like that, shouldn't the centers or controlers have told the pilot about the inclement weather?
My thoughts and prayers go out to them and their families.

[Gerard]

A spokesperson for AF is quoted as saying a "lightning strike" has caused the catastrophic crash. And the President of France has asked for help from the satellite assests of the United States to locate the wreckage.

[Matt Molnar]

A spokesperson for AF is quoted as saying a "lightning strike" has caused the catastrophic crash.

Clarification: He said "it is possible" the plane was struck by lightning, which might have contributed to the crash, but lightning alone does not cause planes to crash. It is estimated that every single plane in the world gets struck by lightning at least once a year.

[Iberia A340-600]

Apparently there are now reports of a TAM pilot having spotted flaming debris in the Atlantic near the Senegalese coast.

[N101CV]

By this point I think this is a recovery event. I would have my doubts that there are any survivors at all. There has only been one passenger in history if my memory is correct who has ever survived a crash from cruise and that was in Soviet Russia

[Gerard]

A spokesperson for AF is quoted as saying a "lightning strike" has caused the catastrophic crash.

Clarification: He said "it is possible" the plane was struck by lightning, which might have contributed to the crash, but lightning alone does not cause planes to crash. It is estimated that every single plane in the world gets struck by lightning at least once a year.

Yup. Interesting report by John Nance on ABCWorld News that lightning or turbulence "shouldnt" be able to bring a plane down and he
was actually talking, in his opinion, of a possible explosion aboard the plane, hinting of terrorism.
But also learned that the A330 itself actually sent out 10 automated messages to maintenance advising of an electrical failure.
And the storms they ran into arent the typical Tstorms we see around here. They can go as high as 50,000 feet and the turbulence
is much much worse than one would typically run into.
Wonder if we will ever know what happened?

[mirrodie]

There are at least a 1000 posts on Anet that are PURE BS and speculation.

RIght now, all we can say is it went down, perhaps wreckage is found and the info that AF has pumped out is only there to drive further speculation.

What is TRULY amazing is that as advanced as we have become, with radar and GPS, that planes can still get "lost". Jsut goes to show that we are still behind.

I certainly hope its a rescue op, but only time will tell.

[G-BOAD]

Very sad news, my thoughts go out to the friends and family of the victims. I am surprised that in this modern age we don't have rather sophisticated enough to track the aircraft efficiently over the ocean and that a modern airliner can fail due to weather. I hope the black boxes can be found in order to provide the vital clues needed in order to establish what happened.

Also, on a related note; I was watching CNN and they showed this photo: http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6521385
credited to Jetphotos.net

[Midnight Mike]

BREAKING NEWS: Brazilian media say search teams may have spotted Air France jet debris in the Atlantic

****No further information, so, standby for more news****

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[PhilDernerJr]

What is TRULY amazing is that as advanced as we have become, with radar and GPS, that planes can still get "lost". Jsut goes to show that we are still behind.

The only thing is that there is no radar over the ocean, so ATC cannot see them.

Otherwise, I am sure that a new plane like that with a major airline did have GPS. I don't know every system known to man, but those "automated messages" sound like the plane had what is called an AFIRS system (Automated Flight Information Reporting System), which would report back to Air France system operations various info on the aircraft, and that those GPS positions would have been sent along with those electronic failure messages. The question would just be where the plane fell and floated to after those messages were received.

I wouldn't say the plane was "lost", but it's just that no amount of technology can determine the location of something that probably broke up into thousands of pieces in an uninhabited place.

[moose135]

There are at least a 1000 posts on Anet that are PURE BS and speculation.

Including the ones complaining about "speculation" in the media... :roll:

[N101CV]

Here is my question. I only know what I have heard via various media outlets as we have not even located this plane yet but what if we are looking in the totally wrong places for this airplane? :idea: Lets jhust say for sake of adding some more speculation that there was some sort of drastic electrical malfunction whether it be brought on by lightning (highly doubtful) or otherwise like maybe a rat down in the AV bay or somthing. So now with this in knowladge we move to the next tier of speculation. Knowing a little bit about the Airbus in normal configuaration the airplane regulated cabin pressure through the outflow valve automaticly. Let us just say for sake of arguement that there was a failure or two in systems brought on for whatever it might be and it caused a depressureization. Most failures on the Airbus will appear as an ECAM message or warning to the crew but lets say that we have a major failure on our hands and Gen.1/2 are both out. So now we have a plane by this point that is now at a cabin alt of 35,000 feet with major electrical problems. Very Al la Paine Stewart. That is just one of my ideas struck in a moment of bored speculation.

[moose135]

Let us just say for sake of arguement that there was a failure or two in systems brought on for whatever it might be and it caused a depressurization. Most failures on the Airbus will appear as an ECAM message or warning to the crew but lets say that we have a major failure on our hands and Gen.1/2 are both out. So now we have a plane by this point that is now at a cabin alt of 35,000 feet with major electrical problems. Very Al la Paine Stewart.

Unless there is a large hole in the side of the fuselage, you are not likely to rapidly lose cabin pressure. If the pressurization system failed, and the cabin altitude began to climb, the cockpit crew would receive a warning, allowing them to don their oxygen masks, and the cabin oxygen masks would deploy for the passengers. Even without a cockpit warning, you will generally feel the effects of lack of oxygen, and if nothing else, when the cabin masks drop down (automatically due to cabin altitude) the crew will know something is wrong, and it should happen early enough to let them get their masks on.

In the Paine Stewart crash, I can't speak for the crew, but I don't know that there were automatic masks for the passengers, given it was a business jet and certified under different standards from airliners.

[N101CV]

Good point which I overlooked on the cabin mask deployment. So scratch idea.

[Matt Molnar]

I'm a little puzzled that it seems there are no reports coming from ships in the area. Does that mean there are really no tankers, no container ships, no fishing vessels, no Navy ships, no cruise ships in that fairly large chunk of the Atlantic? I don't know a ton about shipping lanes (I do realize the Suez Canal is a lot shorter), but don't a good number of ships still go around Africa while traveling between Asia and the Atlantic? Or is this really sort of a very low traffic no man's land? The closest Brazilian Navy vessels still won't arrive in the assumed debris area until tomorrow.

Another factor to keep in mind... the treacherous weather in that area which probably brought the A330 down gets worse over the summer, which will make it even more challenging and dangerous for recovery forces to make progress.