BREAKING NEWS: Air France plane missing over Atlantic!!

[LukenDC]

I wish that the press would give the grieving and shocked families some space. They do not need a camera in their faces as they receive and cope with devastating news.

 

[Pugsley]

This is SO SCARY! I thought planes were perfectly safe during turbulence? QUOTE]

I know! I've always thought that (aside from terrorism) take-offs and landings were the dangerous parts and that once you reach cruising level, you’re fine … planes don’t just fall out of the sky. That thought would always calm me down during turbulence. Now I’ll have to be afraid the whole time!

I feel so terrible for those people and their families. And they say there was an infant on the plane.

 

[4nana]

I can't imagine, so very sad, my heart and prayers go out to all invovled.

 

[Hillbeans]

Maybe i've watched "Cast Away" too many times but the scene in that movie is all I can think about when I think what may have happened to this plane. I just wish they would find something at this point.

 

[happygirl]

They are saying they found seats from the plane and metal

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Maybe i've watched "Cast Away" too many times but the scene in that movie is all I can think about when I think what may have happened to this plane. I just wish they would find something at this point.

I thought of that myself. Very awful situation.

 

[sbell111]

This is SO SCARY! I thought planes were perfectly safe during turbulence?

Nothing is 'perfectly safe'. Flying in turbulence in a modern jetliner is 'somewhat safe'.

I don't understand how they can't have found anything, air traffic control must have known their flight plan and surely there would be some sign of a plane?

The problem was that the flight plan covered a very long distance and they didn't know exactly where things went bad.

Now that the crash location has been identified, they should be able to retrieve the 'black boxes' (if they work quickly) and figure out what went wrong.

Maybe i've watched "Cast Away" too many times but the scene in that movie is all I can think about when I think what may have happened to this plane. I just wish they would find something at this point.

I keep flashing on TWA 800. The primary differences being that TWA 800 was close to a major airport so was still on radar and the airspace was busy enough that the explosion was spotted by another aircraft.

 

[Vixen]

i think its really dumb that they are saying they "think" the life vests and the seats and seatbelts "might" be from the plane i mean hello they are finding it over a area that the plane flew by dont you think its logical that it belongs to the plane?

 

[Jennasis]

Nothing is 'perfectly safe'. Flying in turbulence in a modern jetliner is 'somewhat safe'.

The problem was that the flight plan covered a very long distance and they didn't know exactly where things went bad.

Now that the crash location has been identified, they should be able to retrieve the 'black boxes' (if they work quickly) and figure out what went wrong.

I keep flashing on TWA 800. The primary differences being that TWA 800 was close to a major airport so was still on radar and the airspace was busy enough that the explosion was spotted by another aircraft.

Actually it was spotted by many people...including my neighbors who were outside and saw the explosion. It crashed a few miles from my house.

 

[ckay87]

Forgive me, I was half asleep watching the news this morning (dozing on a chair). Did I hear a report that the pilot saw orange glowing lights on the water before crashing? I swear I heard that. So what does that mean? They had communications from the pilot? What would those lights have been?

Or was I actually asleep?

 

[wvjules]

i think its really dumb that they are saying they "think" the life vests and the seats and seatbelts "might" be from the plane i mean hello they are finding it over a area that the plane flew by dont you think its logical that it belongs to the plane?

Most likely it is that plane but can you imagine the outrage if they said it was that plane and it turned out it wasn't? Do you remember the Sago Mine Disaster?

 

[Jennasis]

Forgive me, I was half asleep watching the news this morning (dozing on a chair). Did I hear a report that the pilot saw orange glowing lights on the water before crashing? I swear I heard that. So what does that mean? They had communications from the pilot? What would those lights have been?

Or was I actually asleep?

No...they said another pilot thought he saw an orange glow in the distance on the water (presumably flames from the downed craft).

 

[Vixen]

Most likely it is that plane but can you imagine the outrage if they said it was that plane and it turned out it wasn't? Do you remember the Sago Mine Disaster?

yeah true all the wrong info incident you are so right

 

[SpaceMtnFan]

I just got the latest news on the Missing Air France Jetliner. I'm affraid it's not good news

Plane debris found in path Air France jet took


FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil – Brazilian military pilots spotted an airplane seat, an orange buoy, and other debris and signs of fuel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday as they hunted for a missing Air France jet that carried 228 people.

Brazil's Navy said three commercial ships in the area were joining the search and France said it would send a ship capable of deep-water exploration.

The pilots spotted two areas of floating debris — but no signs of life — about 60 kilometers (35 miles) apart, about 410 miles (650 kilometers) beyond the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, near Flight 447's path from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.

"The locations where the objects were found are toward the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted," Amaral said. "That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis."

Amaral said some of the debris was white and small, but did not describe it in more detail.

Two commercial ships that joined the search late Tuesday morning reached sites where the debris was found, said a Navy spokeswoman. They were searching for the items spotted by the plane while the third was still en route, said the spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department rules.

"Once they come across the objects, they will be analyzed to determine if they are parts of the plane or just junk," she said.

A U.S. Navy P-3 surveillance plane arrived in Brazil Tuesday morning to help if needed, U.S. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

The French minister overseeing transportation, Jean-Louis Borloo, has dispatched to the debris site a research ship that can deploy unmanned submarines to explore depths of up to 6,000 meters (19,600 feet). The U.S. also was considering contributing unmanned underwater vehicles in the search, according to a defense source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The discovery of debris came more than 24 hours after the jet went missing, with all feared dead.

Rescuers were still scanning a vast sweep of ocean extending from far off northeastern Brazil to waters off West Africa. The 4-year-old plane was last heard from at 0214 GMT Monday (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday).

If no survivors are found, it would be the world's worst civil aviation disaster since the November 2001 crash of an American Airlines jetliner in the New York City borough of Queens that killed 265 people.

Investigators on both sides of the ocean are trying to determine what brought the Airbus A330 down, with few clues to go on so far. Potential causes could include violently shifting winds and hail from towering thunderheads, lightning or some combination of other factors.

The crew gave no verbal messages of distress before the crash, but the plane's system sent an automatic message just before it disappeared, reporting lost pressure and electrical failure. The plane's cockpit and "black box" recorders could be thousands of feet (meters) below the surface.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that if the debris is confirmed to be part of Flight 447, "This will allow us to better determine the search zone."

"We are in a race against the clock in extremely difficult weather conditions and in a zone where depths reach up to 7,000 meters," he told lawmakers in the lower house of French parliament Tuesday. Black box recorders can emit signals for up to 30 days.

The chance of finding survivors now "is very very small, even nonexistent," said the French minister overseeing transportation, Jean-Louis Borloo.

Borloo called the A330 "one of the most reliable planes in the world" and said lightning alone, even from a fierce tropical storm, probably couldn't have brought down the plane.

"There really had to be a succession of extraordinary events to be able to explain this situation," Borloo said on RTL radio Tuesday.

French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said France could shift its search operations closer to the site of the Brazilian discovery "to help them map all the debris on the sea."

France has three military patrol aircraft flying over the central Atlantic from their base in Senegal and it is sending an AWACS radar plane that should join the operation on Wednesday, he said.

French police were studying passenger lists and maintenance records, and preparing to take DNA from passengers' relatives to help identify any bodies.

France's Defense Minister Herve Morin said "we have no signs so far" of terrorism, but all hypotheses must be studied.

Alain Bouillard, who led the probe into the crash of the Concorde in July 2000, was put in charge of France's accident investigation team.

President Barack Obama told French television stations the United States is ready to do everything necessary to find out what happened.

On board the flight were 61 French citizens, 58 Brazilians, 26 Germans, nine Chinese and nine Italians. A lesser number of citizens from 27 other countries also were on the passenger list.

The two Americans on board were a 60-year-old geologist Michael Harris and his 54-year-old wife, Anne, residents of Rio de Janeiro who were headed to Europe for work and vacation. They lived previously in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Among the passengers were three young Irish doctors, returning from two-week vacation in Brazil. Aisling Butler's father John paid tribute to his 26-year-old daughter, from Roscrea, County Tipperary.

"She was a truly wonderful, exciting girl. She never flunked an exam in her life — nailed every one of them — and took it all in her stride," he said.

The Airbus A330-200 was cruising normally at 35,000 feet (10,670 meters) and 522 mph (840 kph) just before it disappeared nearly four hours into the flight. No trouble was reported as the plane left radar contact, beyond Brazil's Fernando de Noronha archipelago.

But just north of the equator, a line of towering thunderstorms loomed. Bands of extremely turbulent weather stretched across the Atlantic toward Africa.

France's junior minister for transport, Dominique Bussereau, said the plane sent "a kind of outburst" of automated messages just before it disappeared, "which means something serious happened, as eventually the circuits switched off."

The pilot had 11,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,700 hours flying this aircraft.

The legislature held a moment of silence to honor the victims and the French soccer team will wear black arm bands and hold a moment of silence ahead of a match against Nigeria on Tuesday night.

___

Alan Clendenning reported from Sao Paulo. Associated Press writers Bradley Brooks in Rio de Janeiro; Marco Sibaja in Brasilia; and Angela Charlton, Emma Vandore, Jean-Pierre Verges and Laurent Joan-Grange in Paris contributed to this report.

 

[DisneyMomOK]

Just heard a geologist with Devon Energy in Oklahoma City and his wife were on the plane. They had their photos on the news. So very sad for their families and all the loved ones of those lost. http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=10463554

 

[sbell111]

Actually it was spotted by many people...including my neighbors who were outside and saw the explosion. It crashed a few miles from my house.

My very point was that the major difference between the two incidents was that people knew where TWA 800 happened.

Forgive me, I was half asleep watching the news this morning (dozing on a chair). Did I hear a report that the pilot saw orange glowing lights on the water before crashing? I swear I heard that. So what does that mean? They had communications from the pilot? What would those lights have been?

Or was I actually asleep?

The report was that another aircraft reported seeing glowing lights (likely flaming debris) on the water.