This just in - lets hope & pray its not been blown out of the sky
BR>Jack

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,523701,00.html

Watching on CNN now, I am afraid to say it doesn't look good.

That sucks, I think it's crashed in the ocean. Hardly to find it back.

Something major must have happened to the plane, A330's are safe as houses technically. I reckon high altitude decompression or might have run out of fuel will be to blame.

CNN said the plane was delivered in April 2005.

This post has been edited by bravingbangkok: 2009-06-01 18:16:45

Total speculation. No point at this stage.

Decompression is very unlikely to destroy airplane. Fuel starvation unlikely also at that stage of the flight to early. Also no information of Mayday call which would have been made if Fuel issue.

Thats true about the mayday call with the fuel but mass decompression can bring down a pane very easily.

Whatever happened it would have to have been quick, as you pointed out no mayday was made.

Not really. Very Very few "Mass" decompressions result in complete hull loss. Take For Example the 737 some years ago.

Exploding oxygen bottle on oz flight also did result in hull loss. I would not like to speculate at the cause just yet.



This post has been edited by Tywais: 2009-06-01 19:37:58

What the Aloha airlines one, that was crazy. the pilots did well to get the plane down.

CNN Map

Kan Win

Latest-BULLETIN -- AIR FRANCE SAYS PLANE SENT MESSAGE THAT IT HAD ELECTRICAL SHORT-CIRCUIT AFTER STRONG TURBULENCE.

Reports say that AirFrance seem to think it may have crashed of the coast of Moroco, Brazilians seem to think it may have crashed 356 miles off the Brazillian coast, thats hel_l of an area in between. God bless the people on board and also their families.

The black boxes (CVR & FDR) are equipped with an underwater locator beacon which gives of a signal that can be picked up.

If it didnt make the Cape Verde's - it is history by a long time back.
BR>Jack

As i understand the is no radar "coverage" over atlantic ocean. The location is tracked via regular updates from the plane via normal HF radio. So it will be very difficult to establish where exactly it went down. Electrical short might cause the radio to go dead but plane can still fly without radio.

Hope they find it soon, must be terrible for all the family and friends of passengers.

Not just radio, but it could effect a lot more systems: Communications, Navigation, Engine Control, Flight Control, Flight Instruments. Basically the whole airplane systems in a modern airliner. It would have to be a hel_l of a short circuit.

I do watch a lot "aircrash investigations" from NGC

Many accidents the crew has breakers blowing and losing all power from the whole plane including radios. Even when the reason for the crash is in somewhere else. Engines failing, fire, out of fuel etc etc... But this is all just speculation so maybe better to wait until they find it.

Air France are now reporting the flight as a loss

Suggestion that there was an electrical fault, thread running on PPrune.com (servers very busy).

Same aircraft was grounded at our local airport (Bengaluru) with electrical problems back in March http://www.bangaloreaviation.com/2009/03/a...rounded-at.html hopefully not related.

The the worst turns out to be true, this will be the A330's first fatal incident in it's history, a very safe plane both technically and aerodynamically.

I have a similar fear for the 777.

According to latest reports Plane probably struck by lightning - Probably no Survivors -

and BreakingNewsThe Airbus which crashed in the Atlantic was carrying 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and one baby, Air France says in a statement.

Air France crash: 'No hope' of survivors

• Airbus A330 flight from Brazil to Paris disappears over Atlantic
• Airline and ministers all but abandon hope for 228 on board

An Air France plane bound for Paris that disappeared with 228 people on board today has almost certainly crashed with no survivors, according to airline and government officials.

Air France said the plane sent a message at 3.14am British time reporting an electrical short-circuit after it had flown through a stormy area with strong turbulence, the Reuters news agency has reported.

Source: Guardian

On another forum there was considerable debate vis-a-vis that crafts particular safety record. They have had numerous issues, especially electrical & electronics going AWOL - radar for one - as well as software that didnt always work as advertised. The big Oz carrier Qantas was involved also. I have flown several in and out of Dubai and have found the BC seating disgusting - cramp in both arms - so did fellow passengers - when we called el capitano, he explained that the new generation seats had caused a lot of complaints. In my humble, any plane company that has a problem reading drawing plans in either English French or German - A380 - and makes a decent seat change for a bad one, does not deserve to be flying anybody anytime anywhere.
EADS has a long checkered history - mainly bad.
BR>Jack

Paris, FRANCE (BNO NEWS) -- Air France regrets to confirm the disappearance of flight AF 447 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, scheduled to arrive at 11:10am local time today, as announced to the press by Air France CEO, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.

The Airbus A330-200, registration F-GZCP, left Rio on 31 May at 7:03pm local time (12:03am in Paris).

The aircraft hit a zone of stormy weather with strong turbulence at 2am this morning (universal time), i.e. 4am in Paris. An automatic message was received from the aircraft at 2:14am (4 :14am in Paris) indicating a failure in the electric circuit a long way from the coast.

The Brazilian, African, Spanish and French air traffic control centres all tried to make contact with flight AF 447 but to no avail. The French military air traffic control centre tried to detect the aircraft but did not succeed.

216 passengers were on board: 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and one infant.

There were 12 flight crew members: 3 pilots and 9 flight attendants.

The flight captain had a record of 11,000 flight hours and had already flown 1,700 hours on Airbus A330/A340s.

Of the two first officers, one had flown 3,000 flight hours (800 of which on the Airbus A330/A340) and the other 6,600 (2,600 on the Airbus A330/A340).

The aircraft was powered by General Electric CF6-80E engines.

The aircraft had totalled 18,870 flight hours and went into service on 18 April 2005.

Its last maintenance check in the hangar took place on 16 April 2009.

Air France fully shares the anxiety and distress of the families concerned. The families are being taken care of in a specially reserved area of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2

A toll-free number has been opened at 0800 800 812 for calls from France and + 33 1 57 02 10 55 for calls from outside France.

Wikipedia seem to have updated their page already with details of the accident. There's also a list of prior accidents there.