Search Continues For Missing Air France Jet

Brazilian and French military jets are conducting searches of the Atlantic Ocean, in hopes of finding wreckage from the Paris-bound Air France Flight 447 that disappeared a few hours after taking off from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night. Brazil's largest airline, TAM, reported that a crew member saw "several orange points" on the ocean's surface yesterday morning, over the same route the Air France flight was taking.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who told relatives of the flight's passengers that their loved ones might not be found, asked for U.S. satellites to help locate the jet which was carrying 228 people; authorities also asked for commercial ships in the area between Brazil and Africa to help search.

One hypothesis for the plane's trouble is that it headed into extremely violent weather; experts say the Airbus 330 is "designed to withstand a storm's lightning and turbulence" and that pilots are trained to fly over such storms. However, that part of the equator can have "rapidly developing thunderstorms can tower up to 50,000 feet." The pilot is described as very experienced, with "11,000 flying hours, including 1,100 hours in the Airbus 330."

Update: According to the AP, Brazil's air force has spotted signs of plane wreckage about 375 miles from the coast.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on June 2, 2009 8:26 AM

Comments [rss]

blkiznewprez

I remember reading that when a plane hits the water's surface at such high speed, the whole thing breaks up into pieces (much like a landing on terra firme), and it is likely to find many parts floating on the water. Could it be possible that the A330 is so reinforced that it didn't break apart upon impact, and so it sunk as a whole -- like the Titanic?

matty

Why aren't there parachutes on airplanes? Good Grief.

Spirit of 76

On the other hand, if you're referring to parachutes attached to the plane itself, some exist, but they're only designed for much smaller, slower planes. Something that would work for an airliner traveling at >500mph would be enormous, heavy and expensive.

Spirit of 76

Because very few people know how to use one and you can't open the door at altitude anyway. Don't watch so many paratrooper training videos. It's not as easy as you think. Ask anyone at a skydiving school.

NannyState

The seas can get rough too with 50 ft. swells. Any survivor of that crash would struggle mightily against those waters. I wonder if there will be an attempt to recover the black box.

Steven

It's going to really hard picking up the plane wreckage. The water is 9,000 feet deep and hurricanes form in the area where the plane crashed.

http://www.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&article=5

whitecastlerock

This is just a horrible event... I am saddened by the loss of lives

GoToHell

You wouldn't be saying shit like that if someone you cared about was on that plane. What a fucking moron you are (and anyone else who makes light of this tragedy).

Politburo

I don't think you have any standing to call people out on shitty comments.

GoToHell

Oh yes, I fucking can. I may speak my mind on many things, but you won't ever find me making light of a catastrophic plane crash killing 228 people.

Snoopy

When people are more concerned about tuna fish and carriage horses rather than the lives of people on a doomed aircraft on this forum, they are shit heads making shitty comments.

In recent updates there appear there might be signs of life rafts. I personally am hoping for the best.

Dead Himmler

There is no way that plane had a controlled crash in rough seas in the middle of the atlantic. Also there was no high frequency communication when it went down. It's sad but all is lost.

Nobody's Son

Dang I thought "Lost" was coming true.

FrankMartin

Really, Yeah dang they are all just dead and no polar bears.

FJF

The crash could've been planted by a bug-eyed sinister-looking man whose alterior motives are still to be determined. Yup, this has Bloomberg written all over it.