Nearly a week ago, on June 1, 2009, Air France issued a press release notifying of the disappearance of one of its planes en route to Paris on flight 447:
Air France regrets to announce that it has lost contact with flight AF 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, expected to arrive this morning at 11:15 local time. The flight left Rio on 31 May at 7pm local time. 216 passengers are on board. There are 12 crew members on board: 3 pilots and 9 cabin crew.
I remember the first time I heard the story about Flight 447 on the news, I joked: “wow here comes the beginning of World War III, somebody shot down a passenger plane and now there will be retaliation…” I didn’t pay much attention anymore after that, basically due to the fact that all the information was so evasive and confusing. But then this morning I came across an email from a colleague with the subject line reading: Did a Missile Bring Down France Flight 447?
Air France Flight 447: What happened?
Obviously this got my attention, and after reading it I decided to look into the story of Flight 447 again… What I’ve come across has been very confusing…
Flight 447- shot down by a missile? From Reuters:
A Spanish newspaper said a transatlantic airline pilot reported seeing a bright flash of white light at the same time the Air France flight disappeared.
“Suddenly we saw in the distance a strong, intense flash of white light that took a downward, vertical trajectory and disappeared in six seconds,” the pilot of an Air Comet flight from Lima to Madrid told his company, the El Mundo newspaper reported. “We did not hear any communication on any emergency or air to air frequency either before or after this event.”
Flight 447 – victim of extreme turbulences or decompression?
The most cited “possible reason” for flight 447′s mysterious disappearance comes up as the weather conditions. On wattsupwiththat.com there is a long weather analysis: “”
Flight 447 – missing debris found… or not?
On June 3rd, FOX News reports: “Large Chunks of Air France Jet Found in Atlantic Ocean…” On June 5th, the Guardian reports: “Debris found in Atlantic not from missing Air France plane…”
Flight 447 taken down by terrorists? The Huffington Post reports:
A rather eerie coincidence: five days before Air France Flight 447 tragically crashed into the Atlantic Ocean after leaving Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, an Air France flight from Argentina to Paris was delayed due to a bomb threat.
On May 27, Argentina’s Momento 24 reported that the airline had received a bomb threat over the phone. Police and firemen inspected the plane but found nothing.
Flight 447 – questions and more questions. From Charles Bremner on Times Online:
Modern airliners do not just vanish in mid-flight. That was certainly the first reaction to the news of the disappearance of the Airbus en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris yesterday. Planes missing in storms sounded like something from the old days of oceanic flight, not the world of satellite links and automated flight systems.
Flight 447 Video discussing possible conspiracy theory
Flight447.com domain name mystery reported on FillMedia:
“…the domain name flight447.com was purchased in September 2007. The link to the site today karimmovies.com, proposing to view a film on interreligious conflict in Jerusalem. Many people, we do relatively the substance of the sometimes sickening, developing theories related to the situation in the Middle East.”
One thing is for sure, in all this confusion the only certainty is uncertainty…
What do you think about Flight 447? Discuss!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
It cannot be a missile. In 1988 IranAir flight 655 was hit by an American missile fired fron USS Vincennes over Persian Gulf. It did not vanish and almost all 290 bodies were found.
Nice web site.
About flight AF447 I suspected suddenly it was shot down by a missile, because the first answer Air France gave very quickly was too much stupid: an Airbus 330 shot down by a storm!! It means that every flight in the world is dangerous and that the business of commercial flight is unreliable too, and shall bankrupt soon!!
The first sensation was that the Heads of AF understood something the try to hidden and not to reveal. I am Italian, and every time we Italians fly, we remember our tragedy of Ustica. The problem of unsafe commercial flights, due to secret naval/air force manoveurs, is real and serious. Does anyone remeber that in that part of the Atlantic Ocean in november 2008 were held joint manoevers Russian/ Venezuelan, with a “control ” of “US Patrols” all around? And that therefore such area has become almost “hot”?!
And what about all such “spacial rubbish” orbiting around the earth which sometime fall unespectedly on uor heads, like happened some months ago in Russia.
I am afraid all the real dangers affecting commercial flights are not well revealed.
What do you think? Which clues do you have? Thanks. L.
Hi Nino,
Thanks for reply. I only expressed a suspect, I am not an expert.
But please note, that
- Regarding Flight ITAVIA IH870, only 38 bodies among over 81 passengers where found.
- regarding Flight KAL 007 KE 007, only 14 bodies among over 200 passengers where found
Flight Itavia is seriously deemed to have been shot down by a missiles, and Flight KAL 007 KE 007 has been shot down by a missile
As someone told, “suspects are impolite and unfair, …….but they’re often correct!”
L.
This Airbus A330-203 did not have multiple independent systems for detecting airspeed such as a GPS based system that would at least cross check the readings being given by the pitot tubes and then provide a cockpit warning that the airspeed could be wrong, or another safety mechanism whereby the pitot tubes are heated (as long as this would not impact the reading) so that ice could not occlude them.
To recover from deep stall is to set engine to idle to reduce nose up side effect and try full nose down input. If no success roll the aircraft to above 60° bank angle and rudder input to lower the nose in a steep engaged turn. Practicing recovery from “Loss of Control” situations should be mandatory part of recurrent training
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