French plane 'missing off Brazil' (AF447)

[Rockville]

An Air France aircraft carrying 215 people from Brazil has disappeared from radar screens over the Atlantic Ocean, according to reports.

A spokeswoman for Paris Charles de Gaulle airport said contact was lost with the flight from Rio de Janeiro at 0600 GMT.

She told AFP news agency the plane had been expected to arrive in Paris at 1110 local time (0910 GMT).

More to follow.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2009/06/01 09:55:30 GMT

[FARO]

Air France from Brasil to Paris lost from Radar?

Marco

[worldliner]

Confirmed as A330-200 (according to airliners.net forum).
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... n/4429304/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Air France has got 16 Airbus A330-200, built between 2001 and 2005. The missing aircraft (which is said to be F-GZCP) has been lost for sevaral hours according to ad.nl.

CNN now states 228 people onboard of which 12 were crew members.

[Rockville]

French plane lost over Atlantic

An Air France plane carrying 228 people from Brazil to France has disappeared from radar screens over the Atlantic.

Paris Charles de Gaulle airport said contact was lost with the flight from Rio de Janeiro at 0600 GMT.

Brazil's air force confirmed the plane was missing and said a search and rescue mission was under way near the island of Fernando de Noronha.

An airport official told AFP the Airbus 330-200 had been expected to arrive in Paris at 1110 local time (0910 GMT).

Another official said it was possible that the plane had a transponder problem but this was very rare.

"We are very worried," he said, quoted by AFP news agency. "The plane disappeared from the screens several hours ago."

Flight AF 447 left Rio at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on Sunday. It had 216 passengers and 12 crew on board, including three pilots.

Airport authorities have set up a crisis centre at Charles de Gaulle.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2009/06/01 10:27:06 GMT

[worldliner]

Plane should have arrived over an hour ago.

[SPL]

Air France announced that there's no hope anymore (messag on French TV).
Aircraft probably missing near Morocco.


Groeten Martijn

[gatso76]

Gatso, who is looking at CNN too asks why they are still looking near the Brazil coast ??.
According CNN the plane took off at 2300 GMT and lost contact at 0600 GMT, so after 7 hours of flight.
In 7 hours you can fly roughly 5600-6000 km so they better should inform the West African countries to have a look iso the Brazilian AF.

[Tintin]

Gatso, who is looking at CNN too asks why they are still looking near the Brazil coast ??.
According CNN the plane took off at 2300 GMT and lost contact at 0600 GMT, so after 7 hours of flight.
In 7 hours you can fly roughly 5600-6000 km so they better should inform the West African countries to have a look iso the Brazilian AF.

You're completely right!!!
The Airbus should be around Cape Verde or near the Moroccan coast...

[SPL]

The captain sends every hour (?) an message, when flying over the ocean, where they are flying?
So they must have a good indication where they were?
Reports now that they hit severe turbulence and contact was lost.


Groeten Martijn

[Key]

Perhaps the confusion arises from reports when the flight was last seen on radar. This is not necessarily the last moment of contact. I am not sure, but I would expect every flight from Brazil to Europe to dissapear from radar somewhere over the Atlantic, simply because there is no radar coverage.
Seven hours into the flight, you would indeed expect them to be off the west African coast and well into radar coverage again. CNN states that the plane was reported missing when it failed to show up on Cape Verdian radar.

According CNN, the FABr is using Fernando de Noronha as the starting point of their search missions. This is a logical choice, as it is as far into the route of the missing flight as the Brazilians can use an airfield. It does not imply they expect to find the Airbus near the islands I think - although CNN itself speaks of a search 'near the archipelago'.

Erik

[bramos]

The airline said the plane had sent a message at 2.14am GMT reporting an electrical short-circuit, after it had flown through a stormy area with strong turbulence.

[Shannon spotter]

Lets hope miracles still occur

Regards,
Dirk.

[Rockville]

Timeline of Flight AF 447

Details are emerging of the events leading up to the disappearance of an Air France flight from Brazil to France in the early hours of Monday.

Flight AF 447 left Rio de Janeiro, bound for Paris, at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on Sunday 31 May.

The aircraft in question, an Airbus A330-200 with registration F-GZCP, had been in operation since April 2005.

Shortly after the aircraft's scheduled arrival time in Paris of 1110 local time (0910 GMT), it was announced that the flight was missing.

Here is what is known so far:

2200 GMT, Sunday 31 May: AF 447 takes off from Rio de Janeiro's Galeao International Airport, heading for Paris Charles de Gaulle.

0133 GMT, Monday 1 June: Last radar contact with flight AF 447, according to the Brazilian air force. The jet had just passed the Fernando de Noronha islands, about 350 km (217 miles) off the coast of Brazil.

0200 GMT: The aircraft crossed through a "thunderous zone with strong turbulence" according to an Air France statement.

0214 GMT: According to the airline, an automated message was received indicating an "electrical circuit malfunction" on board.

0910 GMT: Aircraft was due to land at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.

0935 GMT: Paris airport officials announce that flight AF 447 is missing.

1017 GMT: Brazil's air force confirms a search and rescue operation is under way near the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha.

1036 GMT: Air France confirms it is "without news" from the aircraft.

1116 GMT: Senior French minister Jean-Louis Borloo says the plane would have run out of fuel by this point, and adds: "We must now envisage the most tragic scenario." He rules out a hijacking.

1140 GMT: Brazil's air force says flight AF 447 was "well advanced" over the Atlantic Ocean when it went missing.

1142 GMT: Air France confirms it received a message about an electrical fault from the aircraft.

1213 GMT: Air France suggests the electrical fault was probably caused by the plane suffering a lightning strike.

Story from BBC NEWS:
Published: 2009/06/01 13:01:28 GMT

[Key]

It remains difficult to establish what happened when, but based upon several sources it now seems that

- last radio contact was at 01.33 UTC, after 3 hours of flight;
- last radar contact was shortly thereafter, at 01.48 UTC;
- failure to make scheduled radio contact was at 02.20 UTC, nearly 4 hours after departure;
- start of search action by Brazilian AF was at 05.30 UTC, 7 hours after departure.

So we are back again to a plane that went missing out over the ocean but still closer to South America than Africa, in the order of 500km NE of Fernando de Noronha.

Erik

[geert]

According to nu.nl some wreckage parts are found by the crew of a french ship near the coast of Senegal.

Geert.