Breaking News: Air Algerie loses contact with plane

originally posted by: Zaphod58
Plane crashes always seem to happen in threes for some reason. /quote]

That line , I've heard before . If I recall this right it once was said in ATS radio show all things survival. Everything comes in threes..

I would not doubt Mali terrorist shot it down in the least bit.Terrorist all thourgh there.

Aviation expert Pierre Condom said he believed a "brutal event" must have occurred on board for the plane to lose communication with the ground. He added that could be either "an explosion on board" or a "purely accidental event, such as loss of a piece of structure, for example."

Source

There was at least one Mali national on board, but it could have been anyone if it was a bomb.

So far the plane has been reported as an Airbus, Boeing, or McDonnell-Douglas. CNN and Fox News both have different flight paths shown, at least as of a few minutes ago. And I've seen news reports saying that the French jets found the wreckage in Niger and other news reports that say the French jets found the wreckage in Mali.

I can only assume that either not much is certain yet about this tragic event and news sources are reporting every rumor they hear or the official cover story for whatever happened hasn't been settled yet and it's still in the initial disinfo stage to confuse everyone. Don't know which though.

Since your country (USA) forced a system in the airplane controls, because of your promotion of terrorism, allot of airplanes got missing, vanish, crashing, changing paths and get bombed... hmmm

Is it true, that this system, can remotely control the airplane from a distant operator?

a reply to: Ploutonas

There is absolutely zero evidence that system was ever built, let alone installed on every aircraft out there besides a patent filing.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Actually I ve read it somewhere, that since the 9/11 and terrorism, all airplanes have a system for remote controlling, I have to find this article - again. And to be honnest, I ve read it about 5-6 months ago. Something like auto - pilot.

I am really scared flights and since I ve read it, I am scared them even more.

a reply to: Ploutonas

No, it's the same system I'm talking about. There is a patent filing, but absolutely zero evidence that it was ever installed on any aircraft, even for testing, let alone on operational aircraft.

My thoughts and condolences to the friends and family of those passengers on this flight.

I certainly hope the story, is sorted, and we get some clear answers on what happened.

~ Cirque

a reply to: gortex

I've always wondered if it's the safest form of transport per individual.

I would say a person makes many more safe trips in a car than they do in an airplane.

Maybe you have a few wrecks in a car, but you make thousands of trips v.s. how many by plane.

That may not matter statistically but its what i thought about.

a reply to: randyvs

Haha, here in Africa it is by Land Cruiser or Land Rover.

Several witnesses in the area where the French Warplanes reportedly found the wreckage reported hearing a loud explosion earlier.

Reports here suggest it was found in Mali.

www.theguardian.com...

The wreckage of Air Algérie flight AH5017 from Burkina Faso to Algeria, which disappeared from radar with 116 people on board, has been discovered in Tilemsi, Mali.

The French media is quoting Zoheir Houaoui of Air Algérie as saying the plane was carrying 50 French passengers, six Algerians, one Malian, one Belgian, two from Luxembourg, five Canadians, one from Cameroon, four Germans, one Nigerian, eight Lebanese, one Romanian, 24 from Burkino Faso and six so far unidentified passengers. The six crew members – two pilots and four stewards – were all Spanish.

The flight path of the plane from Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, was not immediately clear. The city is in a nearly straight line south of Algiers, passing over Mali, where unrest continues. Rebels who have seized the northern fringe of Mali do not have weapons capable of bringing down a commercial jet at cruising altitude, a Malian official told the Guardian. "What they have is shoulder-fired weapons, and rocket-propelled grenades."

The flight had asked to change route at 1.38am because of a storm, Burkina Faso's transport authorities said. Powerful sandstorms are frequent throughout the Sahara's northern belt around this time of year. Aviation officials in Burkina said they had handed the flight to a control tower in Niger's capital, Niamey, at 1.38am, and that last contact was at about 4.30am. That contradicted an Algerian aviation official, who said the last contact was at 0155 GMT when the plane was flying over Gao, Mali.

For those who suspect that flying is becoming something of a gamble here is a report showing a brief encapsulation of recent years' disasters from TheGuardian

It seems that this year is a bit of a bad year for planes but not TOO far from the norm. And the stats do of course indicate that flying is a VERY safe form of transport. Around 1 accident per 2 million flights or some such is the gist (not sure I get the maths on this though).

There have been three aviation disasters in the last week: the shooting down last Thursday of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew, the crashing of TransAsia Airways flight GE222 while trying to land at a Taiwanese airport on Wednesday, killing 48 and injuring 10, and the crashing today of Air Algérie flight AH5017‬ from Burkino Faso to Algiers, which was carrying 110 passengers and six crew members.

Has anybody blamed Ukraine or Russia yet?
I just caught the news on this, sounds like possible bomb or hostile takeover or remotely controlled rather than being shot down. Well, at least they have located it and we hopefully will know the results of the black box recordings soon. BTW, have we heard on the black box recordings of MH17 yet? What are they hiding now? Wonder if they will withhold this planes recordings as well?

originally posted by: egoli
a reply to: randyvs

Haha, here in Africa it is by Land Cruiser or Land Rover.

Seriously, they would get to their destination in
far better shape than when they left. No TSA, of
course one can expect to go thru shoes a little faster.

Here is some of the new wiki stuff

The aircraft was a McDonnell Douglas MD-83, registration EC-LTV, leased from Swiftair, with 110 passengers and 6 crew members on board.

The aircraft's flight route took it over Mali, and it was reported to have disappeared between Gao and Tessalit. Aviation authorities such as the FAA warn aircraft against flying over Mali due to the potential dangers that have arisen due to the Northern Mali conflict. Specific threats warned of by the FAA include anti-aircraft missiles, rockets, and rocket-propelled grenades.

French meteorologists pointed to violent storms in the area.[16]A diplomat based in Bamako said that the North of the country had been struck by powerful thunderstorm.

Basic grab bag of potential problems to encounter.

a reply to: gortex

The more interesting aspect is IF (big if) the Algerian airplane that was lost is a McDonnell Douglas and NOT an Airbus - McDonnell Douglas being owned by Boeing. Boeing of course being the airplane types for both strange occurrence Malaysian flights and now possibly an Algerian.

a reply to: WCmutant

Have you ever looked a how many Boeing aircraft are out there? Until very recently the only two choices were Airbus and Boeing. There have been something like 9,000 Boeing 737s ordered from the first 737-100 flew. There are 783 aircraft on order from Boeing alone just for this year.

They say these fighters don't have the gun power to reach 30K ft up. It was bad weather I thought I heard on CNN that it was the tail end of a land falling hurricane. You get some crazy up drafts when these air masses clash with land. Especially if it's mountainous. Actually that was the crash in tiawan. a reply to: Jobeycool