Air France passenger jet vanishes from radar

[SeonaLuxury]

Originally Posted by rosieroseanna

They've found 6 bodies now. This is just beyond tragic, I know there are thousands of car accidents but I think being on a plane is so final, and would it have exploded or broken up? Would people have literally fallen in their seats through the air? I doesn't bear thinking about, utterly beyond comprehension.

They dont know yet for sure whether it exploded or broke. But at 35,000ft in the air the cabin is pressurized for humans to stay alive, if there is rapid decompression, or we are exposed at this altitude then people will just pass out and eventaully die from lack of oxygen(hypoxia) Hopefully this is this the case and they were not made to suffer the final minutes as the aircraft fell from the sky. This is an unbelieveable tragedy, unfortunately these cases can sometimes take years to solve. Lets pray this wont be the case and more evidence is recovered soon!

[Jahpson]

Originally Posted by Pursegrrl

I really hope so too. If the plane did break apart in the air I'm sure given the speed plus the super low temperatures at those altitudes that no one would have been alive when the plane hit the water. Gosh I don't mean to sound morbid or insensitive. I was chatting about this at the gym with a girlfriend this morning... My prayers to the families...and to everyone involved in the investigation for wisdom and knowledge to figure out what happened and for it NEVER to happen again.

No, I agree.

I would rather they all have a peaceful final rest then to go out in pain and fear...

my heart really goes out to the remaining familes, I don't know how I would handle this situation if it were my loved ones aboard that plane.

[maggiesze1]

Here's another update:

Brazil says 17 bodies recovered from jet crash

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AP – In this photo released by Brazil's Air Force, officers recover debris belonging to the Air France Flight …


By MARCO SIBAJA and ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writers Marco Sibaja And Alan Clendenning, Associated Press Writers – 2 mins ago
RECIFE, Brazil – Search boats scouring the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday recovered 15 more bodies of passengers who were aboard a doomed Air France flight that crashed a week ago, Brazilian military authorities said.
Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz said four of the bodies were men and four were women. They could not provide the gender of a ninth body Brazilian searchers recovered or of eight additional bodies recovered by French authorities.
The first two bodies, of two male passengers, were recovered Saturday. The flight was carrying 228 people when it crashed the night of May 31. All of the passengers are presumed dead.
Munhoz also told reporters Sunday night that several structural parts of the Airbus 330 were recovered at the location from which Flight 447 sent a burst of messages saying it was having electrical problems and loss of cabin pressure.
He declined to say which parts of the plane were recovered, saying that information would not be released until they are positively identified.
Nine of the bodies are being taken to the Brazilian islands of Fernando de Noronha on a Brazilian ship and the remaining seven are being transported on a French ship, Munhoz said.
___
Alan Clendenning reported from Sao Paulo.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
RECIFE, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian military authorities say search boats scouring the Atlantic Ocean have now recovered 17 bodies of passengers on a doomed Air France flight that crashed a week ago.
Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz says four of the bodies were men and four were women. He did not immediately provide information about the gender of the other bodies. The flight was carrying 228 people when it crashed the night of May 31.
Munhoz also told reporters Sunday night that several structural parts of the Airbus 330 were recovered at the location from which Flight 447 sent a burst of messages saying it was having electrical problems and loss of cabin pressure.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/brazil_plane

[BagAngel]

I hope they find all the bodies so the families can have closure.

[Jahpson]

^ same here. Its bittersweet that they are found.

was anything mentioned about children or pets being on board??

[caitlin1214]

My thoughts and prayers are with the passengers and crew of the plane.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of all those aboard the plane.

[deliccc]

I believe earlier reports said there was one 24 month old child on board.

[Pursegrrl]

...I too remember hearing there was a baby on board. Gosh, I"m going to burst into tears at all of this.

[deliccc]

yeah, tell me about it. Its so incredibly sad. One of the stewards on board was a "kid" himself at 23 years of age...he spoke 8 different languages fluently. There was a prince on board, HANDFULS of doctors, people who did humanitarian work etc...it's so very sad.

but, it was there time to go, nothing could have stopped their "kismet".

hope they all went peacefully.

[Vegas Long Legs]

There were children, maybe 5 plus baby?

I too believe in the 'when its your time.'

[Jahpson]

Not to change the subject, but the search of the airplane has also opened doors to other discoveries that need to be addressed: the pollution and trash in the ocean!!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science...ash/index.html

The massive amount of garbage in the ocean likely complicates the search for the remains of an Air France flight that went missing Monday near Brazil, oceanographers who spoke with CNN said.


Trash clutters the world's oceans, as shown here in a file photo near Hong Kong.



highlights:

- Much of the ocean trash is plastic, which means it won't go away for hundreds of years, if ever. And the problem has gotten so bad that soupy "garbage patches" have developed in several locations, called gyres, where ocean currents swirl.

One of them is estimated to be the size of Texas.

- Most debris from the crash of Air France Flight 447 would head toward Brazil and arrive within a couple of months; but wherever the remnants land, the plane debris would be difficult to distinguish from the mountains of trash that wash up on beaches every day, Ebbesmeyer said.

- The search for signs of the Air France flight highlights what environmentalists say is a pressing issue for the world today: We produce a lot of trash that biodegrades slowly, and too much of it ends up in the ocean. Out at sea, plastics suffocate sea turtles and choke birds, which look at the bits of floating gunk as food.

Endangered sea turtles become entangled in discarded fishing line and also ingest plastic bags, like those from grocery stores, said Bamford.

"They love to eat jellyfish, and when they see a plastic bag it looks exactly like a jellyfish, basically," she said.

[SeonaLuxury]

Originally Posted by Jahpson

^ same here. Its bittersweet that they are found. was anything mentioned about children or pets being on board??

Seven children and one baby...nothing so far about pets, dont think they would mention.

[Veelyn]

http://www.charter.net/news/read.php...ARSDCCLM_UNEWS

Air France tail found; US helps hunt black boxes


RECIFE, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian searchers found a large tail section from an Air France jet Monday, one of the biggest pieces yet recovered from wreckage that could help narrow the search for Flight 447's black boxes. A U.S. Navy team is bringing in high-tech underwater listening devices to detect pings from the data and voice recorders.
Brazilian and French military ships that have so far recovered 16 bodies and large amounts of plane wreckage searched amid a sea of floating debris, finding the tail section with Air France's trademark red and blue stripes. All the wreckage has been found bobbing in the Atlantic Ocean; the Brazilians don't have the means of locating underwater debris.
Brazilian military officials reduced the number of recovered bodies from the 17 announced Sunday, saying there had been a counting error.
What caused the Airbus A330 to crash May 31 with 228 people on board will remain a mystery unless searchers can locate the plane's black box flight data and voice recorders, likely buried deep in the middle of the ocean.
Two U.S. Navy devices that can detect emergency beacons to a depth of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) are being flown to Brazil with a Navy team, according to the Pentagon. They will be delivered to ships that will then listen for transmissions from the black boxes, which are programmed to emit signals for at least 30 days.
Sixteen bodies were recovered Saturday and Sunday about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from where the jet sent out messages signaling electrical failures and loss of cabin pressure.
Authorities also announced that searchers spotted two airplane seats and debris with Air France's logo, and recovered dozens of structural components from the plane. They had already recovered jet wing fragments, and said hundreds of personal items believed to from passengers were plucked from the water.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on his national radio program Monday that his nation's military would do all it can to retrieve bodies and return them to relatives. "During this painful time it's not going to resolve the problem, but it is an immense comfort to know they can bury their loved ones."



France is leading the investigation into the cause of the crash, while Brazilian officials are focusing on the recovery of victims and wreckage from Flight 447, which likely broke up in midair in turbulent weather the night of May 31 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said the nuclear attack submarine Emeraude would arrive at the scene later this week and "will try to find the acoustic pings emitted by the black box."
The Ventose, a French military frigate, arrived Sunday and is now under Brazil command, Prazuck said. That ship has found and brought aboard seven of the 16 bodies of victims discovered so far, and about 30 pieces of debris that "most probably come from the plane," Prazuck said.
A French navy ship, the Mistral, is headed to the site, he said, and the oceanographic survey ship Pourquoi Pas, equipped with deep-water unmanned subs, is also en route and will try to retrieve the black box.
The search is focusing on several hundred square miles (square kilometers) roughly 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.
Brazilian authorities have refused to release the precise coordinates of where they are looking, except to say the area lies southeast of the last jet transmission and could have indicated the pilot was trying to turn around in mid-flight and head back to the islands.
The investigation is increasingly focused on whether external instruments on the Airbus A330 may have iced over, confusing speed sensors and leading computers to set the plane's speed too fast or slow — a potentially deadly mistake.
The French agency investigating the disaster said airspeed instruments on the plane had not been replaced as the maker had recommended, but cautioned that it was too early to draw conclusions about what role that may have played in the crash.
The agency, BEA, said the plane received inconsistent airspeed readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.
Brazilian military officials declined to comment on the condition of the bodies or identify hundreds of recovered personal items.
Relatives of the victims were devastated by an announcement Saturday that a laptop computer and briefcase containing a plane ticket had been found.
"We don't want to cause them more suffering," Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz said.
The bodies and plane wreckage were being transported by Brazilian and French ships and should arrive Tuesday at the Fernando de Noronha islands, where the military has set up a staging post for the search operation. From there, remains and debris will be taken to the northeastern coastal city of Recife for identification.
Meanwhile, friends and family remembered geologist Michael Prince Harris and his wife, Anne Debaillon Harris — the only U.S. citizens on the plane — in a memorial service Sunday in Lafayette, Louisiana.
The couple had lived in Lafayette before moving to Houston and then Brazil.
The Pentagon has said there are no signs that terrorism was involved in the crash. French officials have also said there are no signs, but that terrorism has not been ruled out. Brazil's defense minister said the possibility wasn't considered.

[Alyana]

Its probably just me so JMO, but I feel like the US should have stepped in sooner to help out. I know we have our own issues going on, but there have been times in the past when people have come to our aid. Brazil shouldnt have had to ask for help, we should have been doing w.e. we can from day 1.

[SeonaLuxury]

It really annoys me how this seems to have been pushed to the back burner. This is quite a major thing, it had news coverage for, what, one day?? It just seems as if its no longer a big deal, or maybe its just me???
Such a tragedy!