Air France passenger jet drops off radar

[Soundguy]

It would be helpful for the rest of us if such folk had their own airline.

Everything is still speculative at this stage but this makes it even more important to find out what happened.

 

[dajop]

It is very easy for anyone to speculate to causes of crash, but far more difficult for experts to pin point exactly what the cause(s) were.

If it was terrorist activity, to the lay observer it would go completely against the grain of typical terrorist attacks, which are (literally) intended to instil terror into the general public, and therefore are usually accompanied by public claims of responsibility. In some ways it would almost be more reassuring that this plane going down was a result of deliberate human intervention than some sort of computer or equipment malfunction, weather related, or inadvertent human error - although I know many, including the media would not see it that way.

 

[codash1099]

There's no excaping the grim reaper when he's determined to get you:

Woman who arrived late for doomed Air France flight killed in crash

 

[tgh]

Appears that Brazil media now has commentary on the state of the recovered bodies.. consistent with aerial break up.. chilling stuff.
Endless specualtion on other lists but a high altitude stall seems to be strongest in the betting.

I remember a long an interesting conversation many years ago now...with an old hand who was not going to fly anything by wire period.

 

[markis10]

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.

Most position reporting is done automatically by ACARs, should the pilots need to talk to ATC or vice versa then manually switched HF is used as a backup, however there may not be a frequency change as New Zealand and Australia could be using the same frequncy with Selcall. I have seen occasions where there was 4 ATC centers using the same HF frequency owing to propogation issues, Oakland/Nadi/Auckland and Sydney.

When VHF is in used closer to the desination or populated centres, manual switching is done as ATC may need to hold an aircraft past the designated transfer point for that frequency or may wish to transfer early

 

[Mal]

It's now believed that the black boxes may have been located:

Crashed jet black box signals &squo;located&squo; | The Courier-Mail

SIGNALS from the flight data recorders of the Air France airliner that crashed into the Atlantic killing all 228 people on board have been located, Le Monde newspaper said on its website today.

Hopefully they will find them. Will make analysing the crash in a technical (not just journalistic) manner much easier.

 

[Slats7]

TV station airs Lost as Air France crash footage | World News | News.com.au

A BOLIVIAN television news channel has been left red-faced after falling for a hoax that saw it claim pictures from the hit TV show Lost were actually the last moment of Air France flight AF447 before it plunged into the ocean on June 1.

 

[NM]

It's now believed that the black boxes may have been located:

Crashed jet black box signals &squo;located&squo; | The Courier-Mail

Hopefully they will find them. Will make analysing the crash in a technical (not just journalistic) manner much easier.

According to The Aviation Herald:

There is no official or independent verification for the Jun 23rd report of a single French newspaper fueling a media hysteria at the moment, that weak signals of the black boxes may have been heard. Neither the French Marine, BEA nor Brasilian Authorities confirm (Jun 23rd 09:00Z), that any signals have been heard. The BEA actually denied, that any signals of the black boxes have yet been heard so far. Many signals had been heard during the search so far and were investigated, but did not originate from the black boxes. A spokesman for the French government said (Jun 23rd 9:20Z), that no signals have been received.

 

[holdenvxman]

If they havnt found them by now I dont think they will

 

[Nigelinoz]

Airbus could be asked to ground all long-range airliners - Times Online

Airbus is expected to face calls to ground its worldwide fleet of long-range airliners tomorrow when French accident investigators issue their first account of what caused Air France Flight 447 to crash off Brazil on June 1.
It is believed that the accident bureau will report that stormy weather was a factor but faulty speed data and electronics were the main problem in the disaster that killed 228 people.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is likely to be asked why it had never taken action to remedy trouble that was well known with the Airbus 330 and 340 series. Nearly 1,000 of the aircraft are flying and until AF447, no passenger had been killed in one.
“EASA has a legal and moral obligation to get to the bottom of this problem now. If there is a defective system and the aircraft is unsafe then it should be grounded,” said James Healy-Pratt of Stewarts Law in London. The firm, which specialises in aviation, is representing the families of 20 of the victims of flight 447.

 

[markis10]

Latest update:

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

Well they have got the FDR at last, which is a big step forward into finding out what happened:

SEARCH teams have retrieved one of two black box flight recorders of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic while on a Rio-Paris flight in 2009. The investigation team located and identified the memory unit from the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) this morning, said France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA), which has been tasked with probing the disaster which killed 228 people.
In a statement, the agency added that the device was "in good physical condition" after it was raised and lifted by the Remora 6000 ROV (robot submarine) on board the ship Ile de Sein.
"At this stage, the box seems to be in good physical condition. Our experts will tell us if there's hope to read the data," said BEA director Jean-Paul Troadec.

Read more: Black box of Air France jet recovered | News.com.au ​

​

 

[Slats7]

Well they have got the FDR at last, which is a big step forward into finding out what happened:


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Hopefully some answers follow and the families will have some closure.

 

[Mal]

Wow. Great to know the FDR was recovered. Hopefully does contain useful data to help prevent a re-occurrence.

It does surprise me that they continued to search for it - this long after the accident.

 

[Slats7]

Wow. Great to know the FDR was recovered. Hopefully does contain useful data to help prevent a re-occurrence.

It does surprise me that they continued to search for it - this long after the accident.

AF has been heavily criticised for 'not doing enough' so i'm sure they are pushing hard to for an outcome.

 

[Mal]

AF has been heavily criticised for 'not doing enough' so i'm sure they are pushing hard to for an outcome.

I read the article properly (rather than skimming) and saw Airbus were coughing up for the search (> $11 million!). I suppose they also have a strong vested interest in getting to know what happened.

 

[harvyk]

Wow. Great to know the FDR was recovered. Hopefully does contain useful data to help prevent a re-occurrence.

It does surprise me that they continued to search for it - this long after the accident.

It doesn't surprise me at all... To have 1 airliner crash is an expensive enough exercise that they don't want it to happen too oftan. Thus when it does happen they want to know exactly the reason why so it doesn't happen again.

Airbuses contribution of $11million really is small change compared to ensuring that companies feel safe in buying Airbus equipment..

 

[Slats7]

We should now be able to get some answers after the second black box was found.



Investigators recover second Air France black box | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features


PARIS, France - Search teams have retrieved the second black box flight recorder of an Air France plane that crashed in the Atlantic in 2009 en route from Rio to Paris, killing 228 people, French investigators said Tuesday.
"The investigation team localized and identified the coughpit Voice Recorder (CVR) at 2150 UTC (GMT) on Monday 2 May, 2011," France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) said in a statement.

 

[QF WP]

This will be a great Air Crash Investigation story. Great to know they may finally be able to unlock the mystery.


Sent from my iPhone using AFF Mobile

 

[Mal]

"The investigation team localized and identified the coughpit Voice Recorder (CVR) at 2150 UTC (GMT) on Monday 2 May, 2011," France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) said in a statement.

Great Stuff! Will be good to get the answers.

 

[Slats7]

This will be a great Air Crash Investigation story. Great to know they may finally be able to unlock the mystery.


Sent from my iPhone using AFF Mobile

It looked for a while there that the black boxes may never be found and therefore great mystery would surround these events.

Hopefully some light will now be shed.