coachrowsey

This is so sad. My thoughts & prayers are with all.

drummingcraig

+1

My poor wife woke up this morning, turned on the news and the first thing she hears is "transoceanic commercial flight has gone missing"...I flew NRT-SFO last night. Poor thing panicked until they finally said Air France.

Ironically, my seatmate and I had a lengthy discussion about turbulence and I was reassuring him that it almost never causes planes to go down.

uluvbs

I tracked down the news clipping that has been the source of the alleged proof we have that the plane encountered turbulence:

"A Paris airport official told AFP there appeared to be 'no hope' that the jet would be recovered safely.

'In his last communication, the captain said there was turbulence and afterwards contact was lost,' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity."

I have no idea what this "last communication" was because every single other news outlet says that the last communication took place without the pilot/captain warning of anything at 10:33PM Brazil time with Brazilian Air Traffic Control.

If this was the last contact with the plane, other than the automated signals the plane sent out later on, how does Air France know for certain that the plane encountered turbulence?

anandrg

Hear Hear! I am not able to give up on all passengers quite yet. Still hoping against hope that there are survivors...

General_Flyer

I keep praying and hoping that everyone survives no matter how slim the odds are. Never lose hope with the small chance that they are safe and sound somewhere waiting for rescue..

InkedParrot

I pray for the failies and loved ones of all that were on that flight. Pray and hope for survivors. We can not give up and hope that the plane is found soon.

us2

A map of the flight path derived from what's known now from the pprune forum is here:

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/3...ml#post4967713

adampenrith

Such sad news!!!

My condolences to family, friends of those who have most likely perished.

My condolences to the airline family, the flight crews, and ground staff of all airlines that these incidents affect profoundly.

Adam

Cupart

The AF A330-200 was only 5 years old and had automatic electronics that sent data to AF in Paris for any repairs that would be needed to be carried out when arriving according to Sky News. Also, the plane was in a "black-out" spot where there were no radio contact to ATC so of course there had been no communication when the horrible accident happened.

Most likely what happened was a series of events which caused the accident and the turbulence itself was not the actual cause but could have played a part in the chain of events.

N1120A

Does anyone know if there was a VHF communication with any other aircraft?

Shinigami

Are you thinking something like the flight which crashed in Greece a few years back?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4151398.stm

They said that sudden cabin pressure drop would have caused everybody to pass out in 15-30 seconds when they all froze solid...

Guava

Agreed, I am a little skeptical about the turbulence theory as well. For one thing, it was almost impossible that the AF pilot wasn't aware that he was travelling through a zone of turbulence given that the pilot and co-pilots most likely were already aware before they even left Rio. Secondly, what kind of turbulence would cause a sudden and catastrophic failure on such a large and advanced plane, I have never heard of it before. Plus, the TAM pilot who spotted what appeared to be fires burning on the ocean, his plane would have to pass sufficiently close for him to see and yet, he reported nothing unusual re: the weather.

uluvbs

Cupart,
My point is, why are all the media outlets reporting the plane encountered turbulence if we really have no idea that it did? Virtually every news article is citing it as fact, but no one really knows that it actually happened. Don't you think there's something strange/wrong with that?

I'm not saying I have information to prove otherwise, I'm just wondering: If the pilot/captain never communicated that to air traffic control or to Air France, why is everyone assuming that turbulence/storms must have been the cause or one of the contributing factors?

Guava

But why? Why would there be a sudden loss of cabin pressure? Explosion? The loss of electricity also seems unlikely because the plane is equiped with multiple sources of power, including a wind based turbine for last-minute emergency purposes. Even though the plane was travelling through a radar gap, we would still be able to pick up a distress signal, if one was sent from the plane. Even if the plane hit severe turbulence, I found it quite hard to believe that the pilot would not had the time to send out distress signal. All seem to point towards somekind of sudden loss in cabin pressure, if not an explosion of somekind. The turbulence / loss of power theory just seems not very plausible at explaining this accident. Ironically, if it indeed was a sudden loss of cabin pressure, and the pax lost conscious in 15~30 seconds, perhaps it was better that way...than finding yourself in an unforgiving ocean, dark, fire burning around you...quite like hell if you ask me...

Outbound

Hi,

My wifes sister was working as flight attendant in the flight. I called AF around 16hrs GMT monday and then got a call back 20min later confirming that Clara was working on that flight. After that we have not heard anything more. Claras father has travelled to Paris to the crisis center. Thatīs all that we know.

/Outbound