Air France jet missing over Atlantic

GAPrincess · Jun 1, 2009

Air France jet missing over Atlantic

France and Brazil sent military planes and ships to scour a vast area of ocean where the Airbus A330 may have come down during the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. But officials said there was little chance that anyone could have survived. "It's a tragic accident. The chances of finding survivors are tiny," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport after meeting passengers' relatives. If no survivors are found, it would be the worst loss of life involving an Air France plane in the carrier's 75-year history. An Airbus A330 has never been lost during a commercial airline flight and it is extremely unusual for an airliner to be brought down by storms.
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The plane was carrying 216 passengers of 32 nationalities, including seven children and one baby, Air France said. Sixty-one were French citizens, 58 Brazilian and 26 German. Twelve crew members were also on board. Brazilian carrier TAM Linhas Aereas said the crew of one of its planes saw "bright spots" in the ocean about 1,300 km (800 miles) from the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, which is located some 545 km (388 miles) off the South American country's northeastern coast. The Brazilian air force said it was trying to verify if the spots were debris from the Air France plane. The Air France jet flew into storms and heavy turbulence four hours after taking off from Rio and 15 minutes later sent an automatic message reporting electrical faults, the airline said. There was no sign that the crew had sent a mayday message or any indication that signal-emitting emergency locaters had activated on impact as is normally the case in crashes. The company said a lightning strike could be to blame and that several of the mechanisms on the Airbus 330-200, which has a good safety record, had malfunctioned. "It's too early to tell what went on and what caused this tragedy," Isabelle Birem, Air France's general director in Brazil, said at a news conference in Sao Paulo. "We need to study the technical results from the black box," she added, referring to the ####pit recorder.
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TRAGIC! I suppose the only comfort is that they probably died instantly and didn't suffer.

newlife · Jun 2, 2009

We can only hope it was a quick death on impact and not a prolonged one by drowning.Our thoughts are with their families.

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