Air France 447

[Andrew P]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8076848.stm

story will evolve over next few hours

- AF447 seems to be A332 (per timetable)

[Sarah C]

"Air traffic control lost contact with the Airbus A330 at 6am GMT after it took off from Rio de Janeiro bound for Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

It was due to land in the French capital at 9.10am GMT.

Airport authorities have set up a 'crisis cell' at Charles de Gaulle.

The people on board the jet are 216 passengers and 12 crew."

Not looking good..............

[David McNeil]

CNN reporting a/c involved is F-GZCP

[Rhys Xanthis]

Sky UK reporting that AF have "lost all hope" of finding the plane (source: french radio).

Brazilian air force and army is out looking.

EDIT: Crisis centre is setup at CDG.

216 pax + 12 crew.

french government say that the plane would have run out of fuel by now, so its pretty much gone. (transport ministry).

search has begun along the route.

terrorism has not been ruled out.

edit2:

reuters reporting that at 1:30GMT it disappeared off Brazil radar.

edit3:

from airliners.net :"In Brazil the news say that there is little hope. The plane got caught in heavy turbulence near Fernando de Noronha island."

[Raymond Rowe]

Does not sound good at all.

[Gabriel S.]

Reports surfacing that the pilots were talking to company or ATC about severe turbulence shortly before communication was cut off. It seems that weather (turbulence, t-storms) are being raised as potential first clues.

Whatever the case, this is scary stuff. Such a seemingly instantaneous accident like this is a rather rare thing...

[Rhys Xanthis]

AF: Plane sent message that plane had electrical short circuit after severe turbulence.

Sky UK and pilot they are interviewing are suggesting thunderstorm/lightning strike.

[Grahame Hutchison]

This ACARS transmission would appear to confirm the registration of the aircraft involved.

ACARS mode: 2 Aircraft reg: F-GZCP [Airbus A332]
Message label: _ Block id: 0 Msg no: S72A
Flight id: AF0447 [GIG-CDG] [Air France]
----------------------------------------------------------[ 01/06/2009 00:53 ]-

[Gerald A]

I've been getting questions from many corners asking how it's possible that Air France 447, or any commercial aircraft for that matter, could cross an ocean without air traffic controllers knowing the exact location of the flight at all times?

Right now the only ubiquitous way to have a real time track of an aircraft is with a traditional radar system over or nearby land. Oceans present a unique challenge to aircraft crossing without radar coverage, even though it is done without incident hundreds, if not thousands, of times per day.

http://www.ozelwebtasarim.com/index....-447-and-ads-b

[Andrew P]

as is airline practice after a major incident, Air France will cease using the flight number AF447, AF445 will now be used for that route

Banjo