AF447 (Merged)

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20 years 5 months

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The most frustrating thing is, it's over water. Chances of ever finding out what went wrong are exceedingly poor.

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18 years 7 months

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When the news wires start buzzing about an airliner 'missing' it always sends shivers down everyone.

Yep, it does. I find the sudden appearance of such catastrophic problems really quite disturbing.

I'm trying to think of incidents in the past where aircraft have simply disappeared in the cruise and I can't think of a single one. It seems whatever happened was certainly swift and serious. I can't guarantee its accuracy but I have heard the crew reported they were experiencing severe turbulence, then communication was lost and the aircraft disappeared from radar. If turbulence has brought the aircraft down (and I'm not by any means saying it has), would it be the first ever case of an aircraft being lost as a result of turbulence while cruising? I can't think of any other time that's happened.

Paul

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That Adam Air 737 just vanished of the Radar during its cruise.

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.."édition spéciale" currently broadcasting on France-Info.

http://www.france-info.com/spip.php?article299572&theme=14&sous_theme=16

French transport minister on his way to CDG, Air France news conference around 14h00 CET

The information on the site linked to adds nothing to what we already know.

Let's wait and see what M. Bussereau has to say.

And I did ask for no speculation, chaps. You never know who might be looking in.

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14 years 9 months

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The most frustrating thing is, it's over water. Chances of ever finding out what went wrong are exceedingly poor.

All they will have left are the boxes and wreckage that may well be in very small bits since the plane was probably close to cruise height when whatever happened did so............just doesn't bear thinking about other than if, as it seems likely, the plane has gone down, it happened very quickly and those aboard knew very little of what went on.

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17 years 7 months

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..again according to France-Info ('state' radio) AF have said an emergency transmission was received from the aircraft - reporting a "panne de circuit" which I would translate as "electrical systems failure" for want of better phrase.

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The information on the site linked to adds nothing to what we already know.

..go to the live news broadcast...

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Just announced on CTV news that they reported an electrical failure after flying through turbulence..

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..go to the live news broadcast...

The majority of us here don't speak French unfortunately!

Paul

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Moderator Message

Time to re-open the thread, sadly. :(

GA

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Air France speculate on the loss of their A330

..at their news conference at CDG

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..at their news conference at CDG

Pierre Henri Gourgeon AF chairman said;

" nous sommes sans doute en face d'une catastrophe aérienne probable .."

" l'appareil ..a pu avoir été foudroyé .." - may have been struck by lightning after flying through a large zone of turbulence/storm

"une situation inattendue s'est produite à bord de l'avion" - there was an on-board emergency - maintenance "signals" were transmitted

the a/c was relatively new, early 2005

French president going to CDG at 17h00

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The leading evidence is that the pilot reported an electrical issue coupled with heavy or severe (depending on what source you read) turbulence. The aicraft also apparently sent an automated maintenance message describing an electrical malfunction.

What ever has happened it happened so quick, the crew had no chance of calling a mayday or any sort of call out.

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14 years 9 months

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Statement in French on the Air France website, still to be fully transcribed into English & other languages...

Air France a le regret d’annoncer la disparition du vol AF 447 effectuant la liaison Rio de Janeiro – Paris-Charles de Gaulle, arrivée prévue ce matin à 11h10 locales, comme vient de l’annoncer à la presse le Directeur général d’Air France, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.

L’appareil de type Airbus A330-200, immatriculé F-GZCP, a quitté Rio le 31 mai à 19h03 heure locale (00h03 heure de Paris).

L’appareil a traversé une zone orageuse avec fortes turbulences à 2 heures du matin (heure universelle), soit 4h00 heure de Paris. Un message automatique a été reçu à 2h14 (4h14 heure de Paris) indiquant une panne de circuit électrique dans une zone éloignée de la côte.

L’ensemble des contrôles aériens civils brésilien, africain, espagnol et français ont tenté en vain d’établir le contact avec le vol AF447. Le contrôle aérien militaire français a essayé de détecter l’avion, sans succès.

216 passagers sont à bord : 126 hommes, 82 femmes, 7 enfants et un bébé.

L’équipage est composé de 12 navigants : 3 navigants techniques et 9 navigants commerciaux.

Le commandant de bord a 11 000 heures de vol et déjà effectué 1 700 heures sur Airbus A330/A340. Les deux copilotes ont 3 000 heures de vol pour l’un (dont 800 sur Airbus A330/A340) et 6 600 pour l’autre (dont 2 600 sur Airbus A330/A340).

L’appareil est équipé de moteurs General Electric CF6-80E.

L’avion totalise 18 870 heures de vol et a été mis en service le 18 avril 2005.

Sa dernière visite d’entretien en hangar date du 16 avril 2009.

Air France partage l’émotion et l’inquiétude des familles concernées. Les proches sont reçus dans un endroit spécialement réservé à l’aérogare de Paris-Charles de Gaulle 2.

Although not in English it is hard not to get the gist of what is said, especially the fact that there were children on board and that the plane was last in the hangar in April.

At this point, there is little more than sympathies to everyone who had family & friends aboard the plane, it really does not look like there will be any good news out of this tragic event :(

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The leading evidence is that the pilot reported an electrical issue coupled with heavy or severe (depending on what source you read) turbulence. The aicraft also apparently sent an automated maintenance message describing an electrical malfunction.

What ever has happened it happened so quick, the crew had no chance of calling a mayday or any sort of call out.

Weren't there two in-flight upsets last year due to transient ADIRU failures?

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I do remember reading about such.
Not speculating on this flight; Apropos the ADIRU could a faulty one cause anything that might lead to the loss of the aircraft?

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17 years 7 months

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the pilot reported an electrical issue coupled with heavy or severe (depending on what source you read) turbulence.
What ever has happened it happened so quick, the crew had no chance of calling a mayday or any sort of call out.

....pilot didn't report anything, or at least not mentioned in the news conference. AF chairman specifically mentioned possible lightning strike in a storm. The transmissions received were automated ...

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14 years 9 months

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I do remember reading about such.
Not speculating on this flight, just apropos; Could a faulty ADIRU cause anything that might lead to the loss of the aircraft?

Qantas #72 on October 7 last year was ADIRU wasn't it, or at least cited as something to do with what happened? That was a 330 aswell.

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RE to FalkeEins's last post:

a dozen news sites have got it wrong then