Air France Plane down

Newnight BBC1 now. Very interesting. Some serious debunking going on.

Those people talking about different dimensions, pull your heads in and keep the discussion rational please. There are family out their grieving the deaths of their loved ones. This gossip column speculation is offensive and childish.

Originally posted by ufosbri
think about all the people that would have phones on them no one phoned home strange sounds like Bermuda triangle stuff.

That is actually a very good point.

As for people who claim they were ringing someone on the plane, cell phones only operate over short range line of sight. There are no cell phone towers in mid Atlantic, so get real.


reply to post by iwannaseethisshipgodown

iwannaseethisshipgodown asked

How is it possible that a plane can disappear nowadays with satellites radar. Im sure a submarine would have picked up any large explosions in the sea.

...Because radar coverage only extends 200 nautical miles from the radar centre. Most of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans are not covered by radar.

reugen

Here is another weird report stating the plane sent distress signals, all according to Air France. That was new, couldnt they have told us so like 20+ hours ago then ??

Nothing weird about it. Stop trying to knit together conspiracy where it does not exist.

Actually Reugen Air France are not under some obligation to keep you informed.

The aircraft was declared missing 4 hours after it disappeared and within 5 hours BBC news was already reporting an automated distress call. It was not a distress call generated by crew.

20+ hours is because you're way behind the news.

weedwhacker said

They HAVE GPS!!

But, it is used by the pilots to navigate....it usually doesn't transmit a location. However, in future, I see this as becoming a distinct possiblity.

Actually they have ACARS for communication from mid Atlantic:
ACARS

Authorities will have a rough idea where the plane went missing but when an aircraft fell apart from 5 miles high the debris field could be thirty miles wide.

It is the sonar on a black box which keeps operating for 30 days, but often on impact with the sea the sonar transducer breaks off.

Why is brazil witholding the Passenger list?

reply to post by The Blind Watchmaker


There are no GSM access points in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I would say it is impossible to phone anyone unless you use the on board phones. There may not have been time to do that, as it is fiddly with creditcards etc.

regarding the text messages, I don't know what features the Air France planes have, but flying a couple of years ago in Virgin premium I had the seat back TV/Game controller and when you turned it over the back was a telephone with a handy credit card slot down the side! I'm not 100% sure but I think you were able to send text messages with it or it was a function they were looking to include.

Swiped my credit card and phoned my mum at 36,000 feet and was lovely and clear!

Still can't believe in this day and age they havent found the plane yet, I know its a huge area but with all the technology about you would just think there has to be a way. I can't believe theres not so usable locator to find it although I guess if the strength of these is limited then they'll only be usefull when they're close.

"the plane should be found, because it has backup locators that should continue to function even in deep water. "
source - www.msnbc.msn.com...

I personally feel at the minute either megalightning or terroist activity are most likely

Doesn't bare thinking about as I go to bed, that there may possibly be survivors, cold, injured, floating in the ocean and wondering where the hell the help is

With regard to the wife who is calling her husband and it is still ringing out: What if the plane had been hijacked and had been diverted to another destination.

I'm not suggesting that this likely but a SKY will have validated the caller and the woman would know if her husbands cell phone would go direct to voicemail/out of area instead of ringing out.

Why is she calling a TV station rather than the Aviation Authorities et al.

These are all questions which beg answers.

reply to post by sy.gunson


the problem with ACARS is like any raido system , your limited to local weather and atmospheric conditions - at worst , ACARS and SATCOM could have failed and it glided down , which means the wreck could in theory be anywhere.


i really must be honest and say there won`t be any orange rafts - not now , not from 5 miles up.

theres too many back ups - they learnt from the DC-10 failure about putting everything close , so all systems are spread well apart - but for main, backups , APU , RAT and batteries to all fail all at once??

reply to post by The Blind Watchmaker


maybe the next of kin haven`t all been informed?


would you like to hear that your loved one had died in firey ball of death from the TV?

reply to post by sy.gunson


Mr expert, thank you, i guess you're an aviator and no, i dont think that air france have any obligations to keep me informed, just the general public. Making a solid statement based on facts can not be misinterpreted that much, bad information however gives room for speculation and thats what everyone is doing right now.

reply to post by reugen

Here is another article saying there were no distress signals, contradicting the Bloomberg report above.

The ACARS gave an automated distress signal.

The crew made no Maday call. ACARS is like a little cell phone keypad. A pilot has to type in a message to ACARS to use it for a distress call and that is unlikely in an emergency.

ACARS is just like a text message system on your cell phone.

The ACARS system is able to report some things automatically and sends a continuous data stream. The distress call was a loss of signal, or loss of data warning.

reply to post by reugen


Air France only stated it was overdue , then missing when the max range and duration for fuel ran out - the first reports where it was overdue (and on the earlier pagse got flamed for that)

like an emergency check list - you follow the steps and not miss anything.

Mr expert, thank you, i guess you're an aviator and no, i dont think that air france have any obligations to keep me informed, just the general public. Making a solid statement based on facts can not be misinterpreted that much, bad information however gives room for speculation and thats what everyone is doing right now.

deny ignorance Rugen, unless you love wallowing in disinformation.

reply to post by sy.gunson


Ok then, i shall stop reading AP, Reuters, Bloomberg and BBC news, some weird news agencies that can not write a correct story based on solid information from Air france. How rude of them !

reply to post by Harlequin


CNN first broke the news at about 8am Paris time. CNN reported that by this time the aircraft was already missing for 4 hours.

Within an hour of the first report BBC broke news that the ACARS system reported electrical failure shortly after the aircraft reported striking severe turbulence.

reply to post by reugen


It's called discerning Reugen. Do you believe everything you read ?

I don't know if anyone has already asked this here, but could this plane have landed on the sea, like that one on Hudson River? Or this kind of thing would be impossible on the ocean?

As for the passengers, here in Brazil some sites are publishing only the names of some of the brazilians that were on board. If a list with all the passengers names comes up, i'll post here.

reply to post by sy.gunson


i really think it shook iteself apart inside the TS

reply to post by Canslli


no

in a word


hudson was quite unique in that the engines had power and/or were windmilling providing full electrics and hydraulics , the captain followed the checklist , made the calls and glided it in - this flight last reported position was at 35000 feet at 453 knots which was in an automated signal which also said elecrical failure and depressurisation.

[edit on 1/6/09 by Harlequin]

there protecting consumer confidence, the plane just probablt fell out of the sky, must of been very bad.

Where is French Navy?