Air France Plane Missing

Plane Brazil Flight 447 which disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people on board ran into strong thunderstorms and may have been hit by lightning.

by Associated Press

Published: Mon, June 01, 2009 - 6:03 am CST Last Updated: Mon, June 01, 2009 - 9:58 am CST

SAO PAULO (AP) - Air France officials say Flight 447, which
disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people on board, ran
into strong thunderstorms and may have been hit by lightning.
Brazil's Air Force is searching near an island chain about 180
miles from the country's coast, but a top aviation official says
"it could be a long, sad story."
The Pentagon says it's seen nothing to indicate that terrorism
or foul play was involved.
Noting that the plane did not have enough fuel to still be in
the air, Air France-KLM's CEO says, "We are without doubt facing
an air catastrophe."
Experts say the absence of a distress call likely means whatever
happened to the plane happened quickly. But they also say the risk
of the plane being brought down by lightning was slim.
Air France says the pilot has 11,000 hours of flying experience,
including 1,700 on the Airbus A330.
Flight 447 was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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carl Says:

Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 5:27 pm

That was one of my thoughts KxVx! The plane must have come apart really fast and sent the depressurizing signal.really bad news at 6 or 7 miles up.Bless their hearts.

KxVicious Says:

Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 3:31 pm

Anyone else watch the TV show LOST?

BamaBob Says:

Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 9:31 am

I had no idea that we were unable to track aircraft in certain parts of the world. I foolishly thought that radar and GPS technology pretty much had them covered around the globe at this time.