French President Nicolas Sarkozy says the chances of finding survivors are slim
The Airbus A330 was a new plane, recently serviced.
It was being flown by experienced pilots for a top airline. But tonight, little is known about what caused the world’s worst air accident in a decade.
Hope has faded for passengers onboard Flight 447. It is now clear a catastrophe has occurred, high over the open ocean, in the dead of night.
Relatives gathered in airports in Rio and Paris, but found no words of encouragement from authorities.
The plane is lost.
“I told them the truth,” says French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “The chances of finding survivors are very slim.”
The Brazilian air force has mounted a search operation and the French has sent a ship and planes. But this is not a rescue – it is a hugely complex salvage mission.
The four-year-old Airbus A330 was less than four hours into its journey when it left Brazil’s radar range. It was due to show up again near Africa.
Twelve minutes later it flew into a large thunderstorm with strong turbulence. A further fourteen minutes after that, the plane sent an automated message reporting electrical failure. Crucially, there was no mayday call.
“That could be the indication, an ominous indication, that this plane was coming apart,” says Transport Safety Expert Peter Goelz.
Analysts say modern planes should cope easily with thunder and lightning.
It is possible the plane was severely battered in the storm and broke up. But two other aircraft flew through the same area at about the same time. They reported no significant problems however a TAM airlines pilot says he saw fire in the ocean near where the airbus is thought to have gone down. Lieutenant Colonel Jorge Amaral of the Brazilian Air Force said it is possible that these are a series of small fires.
The plane is almost certainly in the Atlantic tonight; its black box flight recorder submerged thousands of metres underwater. Satellites are searching for it, but the search area is formidable making this one of the most daunting air crash investigations ever undertaken.
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