Missing Plane!!

[Treasurer]

One of the girls lived a couple of miles up the road from me.  Whatever happened, I hope it was over before they knew it.  RIP

[Norf Tyrone]

Where's Aerlik when you need him.

[Tony Baloney]

Where's Aerlik when you need him.

For more speculation?

[The Real Laoislad]

Surely if the plane glided for a period of time as someone said or even just dropped from the sky straight down then surely one of the passengers would have had time to use a mobile to ring/text someone,the fact that all communication was lost makes me think it had to be blown up mid air,this might not have been a bomb though it could have been a electrical fault that started a fire or something to that effect

[muppet]

Surely if the plane glided for a period of time as someone said or even just dropped from the sky straight down then surely one of the passengers would have had time to use a mobile to ring/text someone,the fact that all communication was lost makes me think it had to be blown up mid air,this might not have been a bomb though it could have been a electrical fault that started a fire or something to that effect

Mobile phones don't normally work in either in the mid Atlantic or at high altitude. There is no signal in either place (usually).

[Tony Baloney]

Surely if the plane glided for a period of time as someone said or even just dropped from the sky straight down then surely one of the passengers would have had time to use a mobile to ring/text someone,the fact that all communication was lost makes me think it had to be blown up mid air,this might not have been a bomb though it could have been a electrical fault that started a fire or something to that effect

Mobile phones don't normally work in either in the mid Atlantic or at high altitude. There is no signal in either place (usually).

I wondered who'd be first to mention it.

[Carmen Stateside]

CNN reporting that there was fire spotted near the debris.

Terrible tragedy!

[The Real Laoislad]

One of the girls lived a couple of miles up the road from me.  Whatever happened, I hope it was over before they knew it.  RIP

Did you know her 

[orangeman]

CNN reporting that there was fire spotted near the debris.

Terrible tragedy!

When ?

[Carmen Stateside]

Brazil air force had reported seeing fire in area.  They havent said anything more only that the debris may have moved quite a bit since plane went down.
30 days to find the black box!

[muppet]

Brazil air force had reported seeing fire in area.  They havent said anything more only that the debris may have moved quite a bit since plane went down.
30 days to find the black box!

That sounds like a porn documentary involving illdecide.

You have a good name for porn.

[Treasurer]

One of the girls lived a couple of miles up the road from me.  Whatever happened, I hope it was over before they knew it.  RIP

Did you know her 

Just to see.

[Aerlik]

Another sad for our industry. 

I have held back giving my opinions but just this morning I was watching France 2 news on SBS television (I knew a degree in French would come in handy one day) and the head of the French investigation team was interviewed.  He was at pains to stress that the team was not ruling out any scenario but was quick to play down the suggestion of "a bomb", rather he calmly but sternly stressed that all eventualities were being investigated.

In 1996, immediately after the loss of the TWA 800 aircraft, a FBI "spokesman" came on TV roaring to the heavens that they knew it was a terrorist attack and that they knew the perpetrators and that in due course they would be going to get them.  I remember thinking as he was ganching on, that it was way too early to speculate what exactly happened.  As time would prove, it wasn't a bomb but in fact a technical error.  That is why we are not hearing shouts of "bomb".  Perhaps the French have learned from the yanks' error.  I think we can rule out the Russians this time, as per KAL007 in 1983.

I'm not sure what to think but the sudden loss of communication suggests a catastrophic event.  I'm not sure what the range of the Brazilian airspace over those Atlantic waters is so I cannot speculate if aircraft was under radar control.  If it was and the aircraft suddenly disappeared from view then there are two scenarios: an explosion or total loss of electric power.  Here in Oz, there are large swathes of the continent which do not provide radar coverage for aircraft and so air traffic control depends on radio communication with crews to estimate ETAs at waypoints thus offering separation.

The former could take two forms: a bomb, or a technical fault.
The latter would see the aircraft still controllable for, as Muppet pointed out, approximately 30 minutes, sufficient time for the aircraft to turn back.  But it is extremely unlikely to have a 100% loss of electrical power as batteries provide back up for the emergency systems.

My gut feeling is a technical fault leading to an explosion.

One other consideration (although extremely, highly unlikely) is sudden and rapid depressurisation incapacitating the flight crew.  At that altitude, the crew would have between eight to twelve seconds to don and activate the oxygen masks before hypoxia rendered them unconscious.

These are just suggestions based on my experience of the industry.  Like I said, another sad day.

[SLIGONIAN]

From Independant.ie

High Altitude Explosion most likely cause 

By Henry Samuel in Paris

Thursday June 04 2009

The Air France plane that went missing over the Atlantic this week was likely to have broken up in mid-air, experts said yesterday.

The vast area over which debris has been found suggested there was an explosion while the aircraft was in flight.

Experts said the "wide dispersion of wreckage discovered suggests that the Airbus exploded at high altitude".

Terrorism has not been ruled out but they said the most likely scenario was that the break-up was caused by massive depressurisation inside the plane.

If depressurisation had occurred at high altitude, passengers would have almost certainly fallen unconscious instantly and may have been unaware of their fate.

Quick

Professor Philippe Juvin, of Beaujon hospital, west of Paris, said: "It would have been as quick as the moment when one falls asleep."

Depressurisation can be caused by failure of the pressure control system, reduced cabin air inflow, or structural failure -- such as an open door, a cracked window, or a hole caused by a bomb.

The structure can also disintegrate if the G-forces during a dive are more than the plane can cope with.

Investigators will examine a bomb threat made against a flight from Buenos Aires to Paris just days before Flight 447 disappeared.

One unnamed Air France pilot suggested that a bomb could "very well" be the cause of the crash.

He said: "One can very well imagine that a bomb caused the aircraft's depressurisation and that the plane took time to break up. It could just as well have been a big bomb that blew up the entire plane, which would explain why the aircraft didn't have time to send an alert signal."

Crash investigators said they were "not optimistic" about retrieving the plane's black boxes, despite confirmation that debris spotted 400 miles off Brazil's coast came from the missing plane.

Difficult

Paul-Louis Arslanian, of the French civil aviation ministry, said it would be very difficult to recover the flight data recorders because of the depth of the ocean -- up to 10,000ft -- and its rugged floor.

"The investigation will not be easy ... but we are not giving up," he said.

[Derry Dolly]

terrible tragedy for all involved..although reading the post above, i would much rather be knocked unconscious and not know what was happening than to be falling 30,000 feet knowing what was goin to happen..unimaginable terror.
RIP all