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arkitect

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 5, 2005
7,718
20,535
Bath, United Kingdom
Wow… this is looking really bad. :(

An Air France plane carrying at least 228 people from Brazil to France has gone missing over the Atlantic.

Paris Charles de Gaulle airport said contact was lost with the flight from Rio de Janeiro at 0600 GMT.

BBC link…
 
Brazil needs to get its act in order for aviation. Their ATT is absolutly terrible, because they are overworked, undertrained, and understaffed. They simply didn't have a chance...
 
According to French TV resources it disappeared around 8 am local time and should arrive at Roissy around noon. At that time it should have been near the coast of Morocco.
 
Brazil needs to get its act in order for aviation. Their ATT is absolutly terrible, because they are overworked, undertrained, and understaffed. They simply didn't have a chance...

wow. i find this comment a little disturbing in the sense of overreacting unless you have some inside information....

as for the plane, hoping for the best..
 
Brazil needs to get its act in order for aviation. Their ATT is absolutly terrible, because they are overworked, undertrained, and understaffed. They simply didn't have a chance...

I don't think their ATC had anything to do with this - those would result in crashes near the airport or at the airport during takeoff/landing - not when the plane is so far away and over the atlantic near morocco.

Hoping for the best, although it seems unlikely given their location.. just adds to my fear of flying :(

PS - Every ATC has overworked and understaffed employees..
 
Update:
Air France said the plane sent a message at 0214 GMT saying it had an electrical short circuit after experiencing turbulence…
Mr Borloo, the (French) minister in charge of transport, said the plane would already have run out of fuel.

"By now it would be beyond its kerosene reserves so unfortunately we must now envisage the most tragic scenario," he said, quoted by Reuters news agency.
 
Yeah, doesn't look very hopeful :(

Brazil needs to get its act in order for aviation. Their ATT is absolutly terrible, because they are overworked, undertrained, and understaffed. They simply didn't have a chance...
They believe it was hit by lightening, not sure how you can blame ATT for that?
 
it seems very strange that a lightening strike would take down an A330
 
it seems very strange that a lightening strike would take down an A330

I didn't think lightning could take down a plane either, I'm sure planes getting hit by lightning is a common occurence. I wonder if there was an existing electrical problem that was only made worse by a lightning strike.
 
Hoping for the best ...

According to BBC, the automatic short circuit signal was sent some 40 minutes after contact was lost by radar. Hoping this means it has ditched in the sea in one piece.

Had a flight through Argentina in 2002, Ushuaia to BA, struck by lightning. A lot of hail mary's called out but we got there in one piece.
I did some research when I got back, lightning nose-tail (strikes the tail and continues to ground from the nose) or vice versa is safer than wing to wing, which may ignite fuel vapour in the tanks in the wings.
Not saying this has happened, if there was a short-circuit message 40 minutes after dropping off radar.
 
Brazil needs to get its act in order for aviation. Their ATT is absolutly terrible, because they are overworked, undertrained, and understaffed. They simply didn't have a chance...
\

How do you figure that Brazilian ATC has any role in this?
 
Had a flight through Argentina in 2002, Ushuaia to BA, struck by lightning. A lot of hail mary's called out but we got there in one piece.
I did some research when I got back, lightning nose-tail (strikes the tail and continues to ground from the nose) or vice versa is safer than wing to wing, which may ignite fuel vapour in the tanks in the wings.
Not saying this has happened, if there was a short-circuit message 40 minutes after dropping off radar.
If there was a short circuit, that gives you the most likely explanation -- the plane's electrical system failed due to lightning strike causing it to crash. There was also supposedly severe turbulence.

Hope they will be able to find the plane -- the possible search area is half the Atlantic...
 
Hoping for the best ...

According to BBC, the automatic short circuit signal was sent some 40 minutes after contact was lost by radar. Hoping this means it has ditched in the sea in one piece.

Had a flight through Argentina in 2002, Ushuaia to BA, struck by lightning. A lot of hail mary's called out but we got there in one piece.
I did some research when I got back, lightning nose-tail (strikes the tail and continues to ground from the nose) or vice versa is safer than wing to wing, which may ignite fuel vapour in the tanks in the wings.
Not saying this has happened, if there was a short-circuit message 40 minutes after dropping off radar.

let's hope they find a bunch of life boats with everyone on board. hard to expect in a rolling ocean, but you never know.

so sad.
 
Unfortunately I think the hope of finding any survivors is next to none. Unlike the Hudson River the Atlantic in a storm simply isn't flat enough to land a plane on without it breaking apart. I really hope I'm proved wrong though.

Truly awful news :(
 
I didn't think lightning could take down a plane either, I'm sure planes getting hit by lightning is a common occurence.

Yes, normally, lightning passes right along the plane and continues out the other end.
 

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Wow - how awful. It might be a long, long time before we figure out exactly what happened - if ever.
 
From CNN:
Former Airbus pilot John Wiley told CNN that speculation lightning had brought down the plane was likely to prove unfounded since most modern passenger aircraft were capable of withstanding direct strikes.
The article did not sound like they were expecting any survivors.

I've read that most plane crashes are the result of many errors in a row. It may take a while to figure out what exactly went wrong. Finding the black boxes might be very difficult in this instance.
 
Finding the black boxes might be very difficult in this instance.

I was looking at Google Earth around the island of Fernando de Noronha, where the search effort seems to be focused. The water around there gets pretty deep - 16,000 feet in some places. It might take a miracle to even find the wreckage.
 
I was looking at Google Earth around the island of Fernando de Noronha, where the search effort seems to be focused. The water around there gets pretty deep - 16,000 feet in some places. It might take a miracle to even find the wreckage.

Particularly if it was a catastrophic event at altitude over an awful lot of deep open water.
 
It is a sad state our technology laden society finds itself in when a giant aluminium tube flying through the air at hundreds of miles and hour can simply "disappear" without so much as a blip on any other technology found worldwide.

A plane exploding should be able to send a signal over the airwaves to something listening somewhre on the planet to say "catastrophic failure" or something. I mean, LoJack for airplanes still doesnt exist in ANY capacity?


side note:
40 years ago my pocket calculator could make it to the moon and back. today Ive got more power in my iPhone and yet I still cant call the f***ing moon!?
 
they should have a sumbarine already on its way there... or we should step in and send one.. combing the bottom of the ocean thats really the only way were gonna find it:apple::apple:
 
Seriously, I doubt this was anyone's fault. It apparently happened so fast, there was most likely nothing any advanced technology or amount of skill could have done about it.
 
If there was a short circuit, that gives you the most likely explanation -- the plane's electrical system failed due to lightning strike causing it to crash.

Electrical failure shouldn't cause a crash. A lot of stuff will stop working, but the planes hydraulics will keep the flaps in trim and the engines running.

Lack of radio communication doesn't look good, but still fingers crossed most are found.
 
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