Where there any Australians onboard? My 21 yo daughter and her boyfriend are travelling in that vicinity. Last contact I had with her was 5 days ago from France. They were bound for Rio, Spain and Morocco in which order I do not know. This news is very disurbing.

Wow. I hope everyone is okay. I can't imagine what it would be like for your own plane to crash.

My thoughts and positive energy to them.

Maybe off-topic but what about solar flares, anyone checked that NASA site if there was a spike in activity last night. Electromagnetic storms can offset electronics and a very famous physicist warned about the coming high intensity of the sun last year if i remember correct. Something to do with miscalculations and a 20 fold error.

This makes no sense at all, if the plane failed to check in just after it left the brazilian coast (check route, it crosses an island) it would have reached a minimum altitude of at least 30.000 feet. At least. (30 minutes of climb at an average of 1500fpm)

With this kind of altitude they would have been well above any storm system and clear of turbulance.

With this kind of altitude nothing can happen that would at least give the crew time enough to locate an alternative runway, or clearly state a mayday and the exact nature of the problem.

Unless, again, something abrupt happened that did not give them that time.

Even with a short circuit, they would have been able to communicate through backup systems...

There must have been an abrupt event.

TH4

Air France PR director, François Brousse, states the aircraft was likely struck by lightning.

They only have 6 weeks left to travel and were going to Rio de Janiero, Spain, Portugal, Morooco, Switzerland and England so it's a good possiblity they may have gone to Rio for 5 days first considering all the places they have yet to see.

Planes can still survive lightning strikes. Hopefully, the plane was able glide and land in the sea, and evacuate people onto rafts.

And it's not obscene to speculate possible "paranormal" activity, since planes have disappeared without a trace before. However, it is way too premature to speculate, since it seems more likely something more "mundane" has happened. Given reports of electrical shorts, bad weather, and other factors, it is likely something more "natural" has occurred here.

are planes supposed to cope with

* electro-magnetic storm ? (wouldn't that break also back-up systems ?)

* HAARP activities ?

it seems strange that almost no information at all are coming in... just like if they were brainstorming now, looking for some kind of official story for the mass media

Live conference with Air France Chief on Sky News now: 03:30 was the last contact with missing plane.

Is the plane flying anywhere over the Bermuda triangle?
This will be another mysterious case then.

If the jet has crashed in the ocean due to electronic failure, will it disintegrate immediately?

Originally posted by hitmen
Is the plane flying anywhere over the Bermuda triangle?
This will be another mysterious case then.

If the jet has crashed in the ocean due to electronic failure, will it disintegrate immediately?

Pretty much, unless the pilot was able to perform some sort of landing on the water, but if he had enough time to run through the ditching procedure he would have had enough time to make a mayday call.

Having lived in Rio for 4 years and flown in and out of GIG twice a year it pains me to see such a tragedy like this unfold

Like said earlier in the thread, flights tend to stick pretty close to the coast line before darting out over the Atlantic to re-connect with the coast of West Africa.

From my experience of flying in that area, I never really felt any turbulence until we reached North West Africa and the Bay of Biscay. (Which is on approach)
Not to say that there wouldn't be turbulence else where... Just my experiences.

But again, if they were flying at the right altitude they should presumably have avoided any large storms?

In any case, Ive been frantically calling close family friends out there to make sure no one was on the flight. Right now I'm just praying for the families and those on the plane