Air France passenger jet drops off radar

[Slats7]

I heard that on Sky News too, that's awful.

Very sad.

RIP everyone that was on board.

[Lindsay Wilson]

Mrs LW just came in to mention it to me.

To quote from the story:

Transport analyst Kieran Daly told CNN that lack of communication with the aircraft suggested it was "something serious and catastrophic".

He said the aircraft involved was believed to be one delivered to Air France in April 2005.

"It is an extremely young fleet by aviation standards," he said.

"The A330 is state of the art with extremely reliable engines made by General Electric."

Certainly not looking very hopeful .

Here's the Skynews report

[Alanslegal]

Truly tragic, very much in disbelief right now.

Here is a photo of the plane in question (reported to be taken two weeks ago), taken from FT;-

Airbus A330-203 - F-GZCP (Air France) by Jean-marc DAVID | Pictaero

[markis10]

Reports of sig turbulence and a short circuit before loss of comms, and the a/c is only 4 years old, early days but some parallels to the QF incident in WA seem to be emerging.

[Nigelinoz]

Reuters is also carrying the comment from the French minister regarding
the plane having run out of fuel by now and the website "aviation security network" is already listing it as a "preliminary" accident.
I'm hoping against hope that there may be some survivors if the worst has happened but it's really not looking good.
My thoughts are with the family and friends of those missing.

[Lindsay Wilson]

Hmmm, just waiting for the 10.30pm Channel 10 news to see if they have the story, otherwise I'll check Skynews on Foxtel.

[samh004]

Hmmm, just waiting for the 10.30pm Channel 10 news to see if they have the story, otherwise I'll check Skynews on Foxtel.

It's on at 10:41 tonight, and I'd recommend CNN instead of Sky, as CNN has had it all night, Sky only chimed in much later.

And low and behold, FOX thinks there's bigger issues in America.

Edit: CNN just showed an air turbulence map of the area used by airlines. Very informative.

[Slats7]

AN Air France 330 Airbus that has disappeared en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through an area of strong turbulence.

Air France said flight AF447 "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence" at 0200 GMT (1200 AEST).

"An automatic message was received at 0214 GMT (1214 AEST) signalling electrical circuit malfunction," Air France said.

The 216 passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men. There were 12 crew.

[Lindsay Wilson]

ABC's Lateline program advised that AFP and Reuters now reporting it was hit by lightning

[v8Statesman]

CNN (Foxtel 605) is talking about nothing else. But sadly no real news as yet.