Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Not a single clue to what happened to Air France 447!


Nothing has been found of Air France 447. Nothing!
Now this is getting weird!

Authorities from several countries are now investigating the mystery of Air France flight 447, which disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean en route from Brazil to France.

All 228 aboard the flight are presumed dead. An official list of names has not been released, but the Wall Street Journal reports out of Sao Paulo that the list is likely to include some big names in business.

From the Journal report:

The biographies of passengers aboard the disappeared Air France airliner likely will serve as a tragic testament to Brazil's rising importance in global business.

Although Brazilian and French authorities have yet to release a detailed passenger manifest, the list is expected to read like a roster of European and Brazilian blue-chip companies, whose executives regularly packed the business- and first-class sections of the trans-Atlantic flight.

Already, some firms, such as French tire maker Michelin SA, have begun confirming their executives were aboard the Airbus A330-200. German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp Steel AG said that Erich Heine, chairman of the company's Brazil unit, was aboard.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is one of the bodies helping French authorities with the investigation.

MSNBC's Alan Boyle gives us details about how the mystery will get solved -- and notes that it could take years.

"Solving the mystery surrounding the jet's trans-Atlantic disappearance is more challenging because there's no radar, no witnesses, no easy-to-find debris field," he wrote. "But similar mysteries have been solved over the past couple of decades, thanks to some heavy-duty underwater sleuthing."


Also of note, The Times UK reports that pilots have been unhappy with the A330's reliance on computers:

Investigators will want to know how the Air France aircraft, with an experienced crew, flew into the middle of a brutal storm that it could not handle. The Airbus flight system will be examined again; some pilots distrust the Airbus family's heavy reliance on computers (last October a Qantas A330 went into a 600ft dive over the Indian Ocean when the automatic pilot disconnected itself).

As far as updates go: Air France has released details about the flight crew.

The French captain, age 58, joined the company in 1988 and became qualified to fly the Airbus A330 in February 2007. The two co-pilots, ages 37 and 32, joined the company in 1999 and 2004. Eight of the cabin crew were French and one was Brazilian.


Two television stations are reporting that the two Americans on board the flight were Mike Harris, 60, and his wife, Anne Harris. They reportedly lived in Brazil.


I can see it now...movie of the week and aliens are going to be involved!

More as it comes!

UPDATE - 7AM!
Pilots for Brazilian airline TAM reported orage glows near the African coast and now a French freighter reported seeing wreckage near the Senegal coast.

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