French Plane 'lost' - 228 people vanished...

[Bugz]

BBC NEWS | Americas | French plane lost in ocean storm

Scary stuff tbh. Things like this make me scared of using planes.

 

[Chronictank]

events like that are so rare you can count the occuranced on one hand, rather use a plane than a car/train tbh

 

[TdC]

sad as it for the people involved, as Chronictank says events of these magnitude are actually quite rare.

 

[kiliarien]

I hope by some miracle there are some survivors.

That said - I agree with occurrences this rare, and I know cars aren't statistically as safe, but if an engine & electrics go on a car (both going is a bit unlikely on a car) you pull over, not plummet 35,000ft not knowing necessarily where the ground is....

A skewed perspective, I just feel for the friends, family and of course those on board.

What annoyed me is Sarkozy turning up at the Charles De Gaulle to offer support to the worried masses. If in Britain Gordon Brown turned up at Heathrow offering support I'd be more of the line to think "Please fuck off getting a press opportunity and let the crisis centre people get back to feeding us more info as and when".

On the ITN News at Ten the wife of a suspected passenger said the crisis number they'd given out didn't even work, it just went dead. Seems the crisis people in France work to the same times and efficiency as the GoA tech support team.

 

[DocWolfe]

They'll wind up stranded on a mysterious island, and learn to defend against 'The Others' and then end up traveling back in time.

Be a nice learning experience for them.

 

[sayward]

If only.......

 

[Mabs]

first thing i thought when i saw that was "ooer, its air france"

when i heard the whole "plane gone down" thing, i thought it would be Aeroflot, or Air China or whatever

most bizzare. its not nice to be sure, and i would be very suprised if they find any survivors

 

[Hawkwind]

Air France in the Industry are known as Air Chance for a reason!

 

[BloodOmen]

Just seen this on the daily mail website, pretty rare indeed as chronic said... the passangers of that plane were extremely unlucky that day.

 

[Gwadien]

Where's the "Bermuda Triangle?"

 

[pikeh]

Where's the "Bermuda Triangle?"

That's what I was thinking

Must have been fecking terrifying for them.

 

[Poag]

Lightning strikes aren't that rare at all.
I think i read an article yesterday which stated the entire US airline fleet gets struck by lightning on average twice a year, yet none of them have fallen out of the sky.

Got to be something else, i'm betting on huge hailstones atm :s Blasted the shit out of the engines.

 

[Marc]

Im pretty sure, that being hit by lightning, wont cause a problem to a plane as its covered in something that protects it from lightning. Something to do with a negative/positive charge. I dunno, im not a scientist.

However, if this has been caused by turbulence I am gonna shit myself even more than I already do when flying. Ive been through some horific turbulence in my time and it never gets any easier for me.

 

[TdC]

that's true. and planes are made to be able to deal with that stuff. I certainly hope they are able to find the black box(s), clues and hopefully survivors.

in an aside, I've been on planes for a large portion of my life, and my dad way more than myself. He once told me a story of flying through a storm back in the 60's and the plane got hit. He claimed there was streaks of lightning shooting down the centre aisle "quite slowly" before disappearing. He'd always look grim for a minute before going on to mention that the pilot ordering the cabin hostess to break out drinks for everyone was the high point of the trip For myself, I've seen fires, a missed landing, people freaking out, calls for a doctor, depressurisation of the cabin, and flying into a downdraft so extreme that it caused my dinner tray -everyone's tray for that matter- and everyone who was not seatbelted in to shoot straight up in the air and slam into the ceiling. I remember hearing later that the pilot had said we'd lost a third of our altitude, and a 747 tends to fly at about 10km so go figure. This was all years ago though. That downdraft thing was 28 years ago. One could say service has improved

If you're not pleased with flying and are up for the challenge, I would seriously recommend a training flight in a small aircraft. Sure it costs a few bob, but you do get to "fly" for a bit, and the real boon is that you'll never be afraid in a commercial jet again (unless you get really really unlucky heh).

 

[tris-]

Do you recall that cyprus airline that had a couple planes crash and then went out of business? apparently they also had faults with the onboard environmental controls. Ive flown with them a few times and I always thought something wasnt right, it was freezing cold for a start and the air alot drier than usual. Also had some sick turbulance with them, one time the plane literally dropped straight down for a few seconds.

 

[DocWolfe]

Im pretty sure, that being hit by lightning, wont cause a problem to a plane as its covered in something that protects it from lightning. Something to do with a negative/positive charge. I dunno, im not a scientist.

It's because a plane is a faraday cage... Faraday cage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cars and aircraft, when struck by lightning. The metal frame and outer skin of the vehicle cause the electrical charge to travel safely away from the occupants. This differs from a popular urban legend that claims that a car's tires cause the lightning strike to reach the ground. However, radio and cellular phone signals can still reach inside the vehicle since their wavelengths are significantly smaller than the windows and other openings in the vehicle's conductive frame, though internal signal strength may be diminished.

 

[Sparx]

Arent the French making a french version of Lost? sounds like a wild PR stunt


I'm kidding btw

 

[russell]

God -poor people.
Lets hope it was instant and not long, and painfully drawn out as some can be. Some of the Air Crash investigations show horrific amounts of time where the pilots regain control, lose it, regain, lose. I know I would rather i didn't have too long to think about it. Or to be left half drowned and freezing slowly in the water

It does usually seem to be a fault with the plane -rarely the pilot/ weather/ air traffic control tho

 

[Chronictank]

The no cabin pressure alarm in the cockpit was sent to air traffic control, so something must have hit the plane imo

 

[Ezteq]

Where's the "Bermuda Triangle?"

*cough* Bermuda I imagine Oo

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

Statistically, you have about the same chances of dying in a major air crash as winning the national lottery, or being struck twice by lightning.

So the question is really, how lucky are you?

 

[Bahumat]

Is it GOA Airlines? Maybe it's just lag? Lets send in some ping plots lol.

One woman phoned her husband and the phone rings and rings with no answer. If the phone is underwater (ok could be stuck in a magic compartment), how comes it's not going straight to voicemail (meaning phones off/broke)?

 

[Nate]

Lets get Girth in this thread imo!

 

[sayward]

Other half flying Air France in out of Charles de Gaulle today and back in tomorrow. Am counting on lightning NOT striking twice. At least not in the same week.

 

[Aoami]

 

[- English -]

anyone smell a bomb?

 

[Poag]

If it was a bomb wouldn't theres be tons of debris scattered of a huge area?

I mean if you chuck stuff out at 30,000 feet its gonan spread about. Rather than, whats been reported, a small amount of debris in a small area...which sounds more to me like a plane impact into water.

Anyway, i'll wait for the black box personally

[EDIT]
Oop i stand corrected.

Brazilian military pilots first spotted the floating debris early Tuesday in two areas about 35 miles (60 kilometers) apart, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral. The area is not far off the flight path of Flight 447.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31057560/