Bandit Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Reports are coming in of ATC having lost contact with Air France flight AF447, an Airbus A330-200 some where over the Atlantic 3 hours after departing from Rio enroute Paris. 228 people (216 passengers and 12 crew ) are on board. Fears are the plane has been lost. A search of the area has commenced. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8076848.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Giddens Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Yeah terrible news coming through , To early yet on any cause , but feelings sure do go out to those people on board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davenicoll Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Terrible news... Early reports suggest she may have been struck by lightning... Such a tragic loss... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhockey21 Posted June 1, 2009 Share Posted June 1, 2009 Its pretty shocking that something that size can go vanish! Its sad, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest volcom1720 Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 Just gives you that sick feeling. :'( Reporters say it exploded in mid-air R.I.P for those who died (if they died) :'( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradHosking Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 How the heck would reporters know??? The media is BS... they need to wait for the black boxes. No one knows what caused this except for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost in Isaan Posted June 2, 2009 Share Posted June 2, 2009 How the heck would reporters know??? The media is BS... they need to wait for the black boxes. No one knows what caused this except for that. Agreed but just a thought!Isn't it time the black boxes were retired to the scrap heap and using current technology real time flight dynamics, hardware telementry and cockpit voice/noise recorded on a system in a secure ground based location. I believe many airlines, including AF, record some aircraft functions whilst in flight now using F1 etc. technology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singletracker Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Isn't it time the black boxes were retired to the scrap heap and using current technology real time flight dynamics, hardware telementry and cockpit voice/noise recorded on a system in a secure ground based location. I believe many airlines, including AF, record some aircraft functions whilst in flight now using F1 etc. technology. We use numerous recorders as well as the standard CVR and FDR. We have a QAR (Quick Access Recorder) for standards monitoring and pilot performance trend monitoring. We also have Ground based datalink engineering analysis and fault monitoring. Which is probably what the AF 330 was transmiting in the seconds before it disapeared. The problem being once the aircraft systems degrade past a certain point you would probably loose the ability to transmit the data back to the ground as seen in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. you still need an impact survivable recorder to really find out what happened during those last few seconds, and a way to find it would help! Agreed regarding the Media, unfortunately most can't seem to grasp what is being said to them in media briefings etc. and they have no Aviation expertise to draw on so the reporting has been half baked at the best. Even the Aviation media is knobbing on about possible links to the Qantas A330 ADIRU fault and pitch over which has to be a joke right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singletracker Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 An interesting read http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/of the weather situation at the time AF447 sent it's last ACARS data burst. It appears to have been negotiating a pretty big cluster of super cells at the time. It is very in depth and certainly adds weight to the in flight break up case, I personally would have thought this highly unlikely though \ but who knows. I also agree with the authors opinions regarding Rain,Hail and lightning not being a factor, Icing however may be, given the amazing temperature rises around storm cells I personally have witnessed (in the order of 20 degrees). Therefore it is possible to increase the temperature rapidly enough that the crew may not have noticed, the increase in temperature could also then bring the aircraft into a severe Icing situation. Coupled with severe turbulence the loads placed on the airframe may have moved beyond design limits resulting in structural failure. The whole thing sure sucks It will certainly give me something to think about next time I'm dancing around storms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Henare Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 It appears the first ACARS message was a disconnection of the Autopilot. Then loss various instruments and after 4min loss of cabin pressure. I suspect the cabin pressure would have been at time of Impact/Breakup which ever happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest volcom1720 Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 It appears the first ACARS message was a disconnection of the Autopilot. Then loss various instruments and after 4min loss of cabin pressure. I suspect the cabin pressure would have been at time of Impact/Breakup which ever happened. Yes yes yes! That probably is true. Question is why why why. We need more investigation! Air Crash Investigations or ACA or Today Tonight should show what happened. I'dd like to see it digitally. To see what inititally happened. But breaking up the plane? That's horrible. Shivers when you think of planes \ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Routley Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Volcom .. I think it will be a very long time before we know what happened. The FDRs "ping" their location for about a week or two - if they're intact ... and prior to recovering these, everything is pure guesswork. I think that given the chilling nature of an inflight catastrophic failure, and the first loss of an A330 - there will be a lot riding on getting answers ... and no end of trouble gone to to find the boxes. A combination of instrument failure and extreme weather seem involved .. but really, who knows. I think it will be over a year before the official report is released, and probably several more before Air Crash Investigations put it on their show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Snyman Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 This must be one of the very last pictures taken of F-GZCP. \ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonyla1 Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 Chilling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Henare Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 Volcom .. I think it will be a very long time before we know what happened. The FDRs "ping" their location for about a week or two - if they're intact ... and prior to recovering these, everything is pure guesswork. I think that given the chilling nature of an inflight catastrophic failure, and the first loss of an A330 - there will be a lot riding on getting answers ... and no end of trouble gone to to find the boxes. A combination of instrument failure and extreme weather seem involved .. but really, who knows. I think it will be over a year before the official report is released, and probably several more before Air Crash Investigations put it on their show The BEA are required to release an initial factual report on the accident after one month. It won't have the answers but will outline the known facts. This report will most likely end in "investigations are on going". The ATSB and NTSB do the same. The FDR and CVR pingers should operate for 30days, but have been known to go for longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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