A massive search is underway for an Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris believed to have gone down off the northeast coast of Brazil a few hours after takeoff.

The jet lost contact with air traffic controllers after flying into a strong thunderstorm over the Atlantic Ocean and signaling it had an electric problem. Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse said “it is possible” the plane was hit by lightning.

Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members, company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand said.

The flight left Rio on Sunday at 7 p.m. local time. About four hours later, the plane sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through strong turbulence, Air France said.

The plane disappeared about 190 miles northeast of the coastal Brazilian city of Natal, near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, a Brazilian air force spokesman said. The air force began a search Monday morning near Fernando de Noronha, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with air force policy.

Three Brazilian military planes began searching the area at dawn, flying over the area where the plane vanished and are trying to follow the same route, according to the Brazilian air force. Around 300 Brazilian military personel are involved in the searches. They are searching from the Fernando de Noronha archipelago on, in the direction of Paris. According to military sources, the searches are considered to be of extreme difficulty due to the size of the area.

The are also reports that several French military planes, as well as some Cabo Verde planes, are helping in the searches. A French military plane, the Atlantic 2, the only one specialized in this kind of operation, has left Dakar to help in the searches. It has 13 crew members and a flight autonomy of 15 hours.

The plane “crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence” at 0200 GMT Monday (10 p.m. EDT Sunday). An automatic message was received at 0214 GMT (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday) “signaling electrical circuit malfunction.”

Contact with the plane was lost at 0220 GMT Monday (10:20 p.m. EDT Sunday), an official said.

Aviation experts said the risk the plane was brought down by lightning was slim.

“Lightning issues have been considered since the beginning of aviation. They were far more prevalent when aircraft operated at low altitudes. They are less common now since it’s easier to avoid thunderstorms,” said Bill Voss, president and CEO of Flight Safety Foundation, Alexandria, Va.

He said planes have specific measures built in to help dissipate electricity along the aircraft’s skin.

“I cannot recall in recent history any examples of aircraft being brought down by lightning,” he told The Associated Press.

Barrand said the airline installed an information center at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for the families of those aboard.

“Air France regrets to announce that it is without news from Air France flight 447 flying from Rio to Paris,” she said. “Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned.”

The flight was scheduled to arrive in Paris at 0915 GMT (5:15 a.m. EDT), according to the airport.

Air France said the 216 passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men. It says the plane entered service in 2005 and last underwent maintenance April 16.

Portuguese television reported that there were 60 French nationals on board, as well as 5 Italians, 3 Moroccan and 1 Portuguese. But French TV is saying that only 40 French nationals were on board and that most passengers were Brazilian. They are also reporting that 20 German passengers were on board.

A police official on Fernando de Noronha said the weather was clear last night into this morning.

“It’s going to take a long time to carry out this search,” Douglas Ferreira Machado, head of investigation and accident prevention for Brazil’s Civil Aeronautics Agency, or ANAC, told Globo news. “It could be a long, sad story. The black box will be at the bottom of the sea.”

Air France-KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, at a news conference in Paris, said the pilot had 11,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,700 hours flying this aircraft. No name was released.

Aviation experts said it was clear the plane was not in the air any longer, due to the amount of fuel it would have been carrying.

“The conclusion to be drawn is that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this airplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion,” Jane’s Aviation analyst Chris Yates told The Associated Press.

“I would suggest that potentially it went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilot on board didn’t have a chance to make that emergency call,” Yates said, adding that the possibilities ranged from mechanical failure to terrorism.

Airbus declined to comment until more details emerge.

Barrand said the airline set up an information center at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for the families of those on board. That center said 60 French citizens were on the plane. Italy said at least three passengers were Italian.

“Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned,” she said.

A source at the Paris airport reportedly told AFP they have “lost hope” for the missing jet.

France’s minister in charge of transport, Jean-Louis Borloo, said there was a “real pessimism at this hour” about the fate of the aircraft.

“We can fear the worst,” he said on Europe-1 radio.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his “extreme worry” and sent ministers to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport to “do all they could to help find the aircraft. In a statement, the Elysée said that the President had been informed of the loss of contact this morning and had expressed “the greatest anxiety.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source (article): FOXNEWS

Source (picture): FOXNEWS

At 2:10 p.m., five U.S. Navy Avenger torpedo-bombers comprising Flight 19 take off from the Ft. Lauderdale Naval Air Station in Florida on a routine three-hour training mission. Flight 19 was scheduled to take them due east for 120 miles, north for 73 miles, and then back over a final 120-mile leg that would return them to the naval base. They never returned.

Two hours after the flight began, the leader of the squadron, who had been flying in the area for more than six months, reported that his compass and back-up compass had failed and that his position was unknown. The other planes experienced similar instrument malfunctions. Radio facilities on land were contacted to find the location of the lost squadron, but none were successful. After two more hours of confused messages from the fliers, a distorted radio transmission from the squadron leader was heard at 6:20 p.m., apparently calling for his men to prepare to ditch their aircraft simultaneously because of lack of fuel.

By this time, several land radar stations finally determined that Flight 19 was somewhere north of the Bahamas and east of the Florida coast, and at 7:27 p.m. a search and rescue Mariner aircraft took off with a 13-man crew. Three minutes later, the Mariner aircraft radioed to its home base that its mission was underway. The Mariner was never heard from again. Later, there was a report from a tanker cruising off the coast of Florida of a visible explosion seen at 7:50 p.m.

The disappearance of the 14 men of Flight 19 and the 13 men of the Mariner led to one of the largest air and seas searches to that date, and hundreds of ships and aircraft combed thousands of square miles of the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and remote locations within the interior of Florida. No trace of the bodies or aircraft was ever found.

Although naval officials maintained that the remains of the six aircraft and 27 men were not found because stormy weather destroyed the evidence, the story of the “Lost Squadron” helped cement the legend of the Bermuda Triangle, an area of the Atlantic Ocean where ships and aircraft are said to disappear without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is said to stretch from the southern U.S. coast across to Bermuda and down to the Atlantic coast of Cuba and Santo Domingo.

HISTORY.COM
Date: 2008-12-05

Casey Anthony mother a missing child Caylee Anthony takes her third trip to jail today. This trip was far better choreographed, surely due to the Mark Nejame Team at the helm. There did not appear to be many pressaratizy on the scene, however Jerry from 2 WESH managed to get some amazing footage!

The home of missing Caylee, Casey, Cindy, George and Lee Anthony is quickly becoming a new Orlando tourist attraction and now Mark Nejame is along for the ride.

09/05/08 Groups of protesters began fighting on the front lawn of Cindy and George Anthony’s Orlando home. The disturbance took place the same night Casey Anthony was released from the Orange County 33rd St Jail.