Monday, June 1, 2009

Air France jet plane from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappears off radar screen. AF447 disaster - a possible explosion?

01.June.2009 Air France flight AF447 with about 228 passengers (216 and 12 crew) on board has gone missing off the coast of Brazil. The Airbus A330 plane scheduled on a route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris took off at 7:30 p.m Sunday ET (22:30 GMT) from Galeao International Airport and planned to arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris at 11:15 (09:15 GMT 01/06/2009). About 4 hours into the flight the radio contact was lost. Fear for a crash into Atlantic waters started to come up and Brazilian Air force already conducts the search and rescue opperation around Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, 365 kilometers away from the coast. Rio de Janeiro AF447 air catastrophe is considered the worst in the 75-year history of Air France and also the deadliest aviation tragedy since 2001 involving a plane of the french company.
Update2: At 19:00 GMT (01/06/09) the fate of the missing Air France flight was still unknown the hopes of finding survivors fading away and new Air France A 447 flight information is released.
AF447 statistics, chain of events timeline and possible scenarios: Besides the 12 crew members there were 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and a baby aboard - Air France said. Most part of the flight path is without radar contact; at 01:33 GMT the crew makes a last contact with traffic control and at 01:48 GMT the plane vanishes off the radar screen. Eighteen minutes later, at 02:14 GMT, the A330 jet generates a series of automatic messages and warning signals of some electrical troubles on board before entering a stormy region and the next check-in contact scheduled for 02:20 GMT never occured. In the last conversation the pilots reported an unforeseen and unexpected situation - AF airline company chief said.
A447 passenger nationalities list:
Air France and Brazilian authorities disclosed the passenger nationalities on board A447 flight: 61 French, 58 Brazilian, 26 Germans, 9 Italians and Chinese, 6 Swiss, 5 Lebanese, 5 British, 4 Hungarians, 3 Slovaks, 3 Irish, 3 Norwegians, 2 Moroccans, 2 American and individuals from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Demark, the Netherlands, Estonia, the Philippines, The Gambia, Iceland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey. It was not released yet information on the crew members.
Regarding the fact the A330 plane was not found yet, still remains the question: where is AF 447 flight? Air France A447 crash (supposition which looks increasingly likely) is the worst accident involving an Airbus A330 (a plane with an excelent safety record). Because an A330-200 has several different ways of communication and due to sudden loss of contact, the possibility of an explosion scenario is not ruled out.
Video report on AF447 flight crash and technical information.

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