Air France passenger jet drops off radar

[Slats7]

Latest update:

Retrieving Air France black box will be epic task | U.S. | Reuters

The first sighting off Brazil's coast of possible wreckage from a missing Air France jet signals the start of what could be one of the most challenging operations ever mounted to retrieve the tell-tale "black box."

 

[NYCguy]

The Brazilian military has said, according to Le Monde, that there is now "no doubt" that the wreckage is that of AF 447.

 

[Grooba]

Seems confirmed yep.

Air France jet wreckage found in Atlantic, official says - CNN.com

A debris field found in the Atlantic Ocean is wreckage from Air France Flight 447, Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said Tuesday. Searchers found a seat, an orange life vest and other items. Commercial ships are heading to the area.

 

[bambbbam2]

I've always thought that black boxes should have some kind of very strong tracking device.. a la 'lo-jack' on cars.

Perhaps they do already, but maybe it's not powerful enough?

 

[notzac]

Perhaps they do already, but maybe it's not powerful enough?

That's a big part of the problem as I understand it - if it's down as far as what's been reported, it would be very difficult to get any sort of tracking signal up to the surface.

 

[samh004]

I've always thought that black boxes should have some kind of very strong tracking device.. a la 'lo-jack' on cars.

Perhaps they do already, but maybe it's not powerful enough?

When wet, an underwater locator beacon activates, which sends out a signal every second for up to 30 days and can be located from a depth of up to 6KM.

In a Yahoo News or BBC News article (forget which), they said the plane should be about 4.7KM down.

 

[Slats7]

Air France received bomb threat before crash killed 228 | Herald Sun

AIR France says it received a bomb threat about a flight from Buenos Aires to Paris just days before one of its planes crashed into the Atlantic.

It appears there is no link to AF447.

 

[samh004]

Air France received bomb threat before crash killed 228 | Herald Sun

It appears there is no link to AF447.

Well they're experts at keeping information under wraps until they need it. Wonder what they'll be saying tomorrow, that they knew all along?

 

[oz_mark]

Journalists and editors in the mainstream media are quite adept at drawing tenuous linkages between unrelated events. I think it's going to be a tough enough investigation as it is, without all the media noise around it.

 

[Alanslegal]

I'm havnig this little debate with a work colleague regarding why there was no reported distress communications / calls made.

My very newbie premise is the plane was leaving Brazilian air space, into semi-open air space, before entering Senegales air space. There was a 40 minute window where the pilots were not required to make any contact with any ATC centres as having left Brazilian ATC before needing to contact the new ATC at 20 past.

It was just prior to needing to report into the new ATC that the plane endured severe problems and thus the communication to Brazil was either 1) out of distance or 2) the communication frequency to the new ATC was not set - so even though the pilots may have made an emergency call - it was not picked up due to (1) and/or (2).

I guess the thrust of my argument to this colleague of mine is that 1) when changing over to new ATC, the pilots need to contact ATC where they are assigned a controller who then gives the pilots a unique communication frequency channel. Am I correct, somewhat correct or completely off track?

 

[oz_mark]

I would surmise that if it was something that happened suddenly there would simply not be time for the pilots to send a distress message. In my simplistic understanding in an emergency the pilots first priority is to keep the plane flying, secondly to get somewhere out of harms way, and after that to tell someone about your situation.

The plane itself got out some messages, and I have just thought that the pilots had too much else to deal with.

 

[Alanslegal]

Ok very logical.

However let me clarify, my current debate;-

A plane flies from SYD to AKL, somewhere in flight, the pilots need to disconnect from SYD ATC and contact AKL ATC, I would assume Yes. If yes, do the pilots manually change communication frequencies? Or are all the settings pre-set in the computers - so at a point of travel, it switches to the new ATC.

I'm arguing its set manually.

 

[Alanslegal]

SMH currently reports that the 'debris' found in the ocean, is not from the plane, but is likely to be 'trash' from a passing ship, what;-

Sea 'trash', not debris recovered from crash site: Brazil

 

[samh004]

I heard this on Sky not long ago (earlier in the day). Seems the debris isn't from the plane now, so where is it?

 

[docjames]

I think the articles i saw suggested there was one large piece which they subsequently realised was from a cargo ship (a piece of a shipping container), and also the "oil slick" was shipping oil on analysis (heavy, sludgy) but the other slick was "light" fuel (ie. aviation fuel).

 

[NYCguy]

I would surmise that if it was something that happened suddenly there would simply not be time for the pilots to send a distress message. In my simplistic understanding in an emergency the pilots first priority is to keep the plane flying, secondly to get somewhere out of harms way, and after that to tell someone about your situation.

The plane itself got out some messages, and I have just thought that the pilots had too much else to deal with.

I tend to agree with this. Sometimes I read about passengers who complain that during an emergency situation the pilots "told us nothing"... Well, duh... They're trying to keep the bloody thing in the air, running through checklists and generally attempting to solve the problem at hand. Rule number one - FLY THE AIRPLANE.

 

[Nigelinoz]

FROM:
Brazil finds bodies from Air France crash | News.com.au Top stories | News.com.au

BRAZIL'S air force has recovered bodies from an Air France jetliner that came down over the Atlantic on June 1 with 228 people on board, a spokesman said.

"We confirm the recovery from the water debris and bodies from the Air France plane," Colonel Jorge Amaral said.

R.I.P

 

[Nigelinoz]

Tail fin from downed Air France jet recovered | The Australian

BRAZIL'S navy has recovered the tail fin from an Air France jet that plunged into the Atlantic a week ago, and was transporting 16 bodies to shore for identification.
The recovery of the fin on Monday was seen as important to the search for answers as to what knocked the Airbus A330, flight AF 447, out of the sky on June 1 as it was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board.

 

[Slats7]

Air France to replace pitot probes on A330s | World News | News.com.au

AIR France is to replace the airspeed probes on its Airbus A330 jets more than a week after one plunged into the Atlantic, pilots said today, as salvage crews recovered more bodies and debris.

 

[Slats7]

Passengers on board crashed Air France flight had terror links | World News | News.com.au

TWO passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on board the Air France flight that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board, it has emerged.