And there will probably never be.

 

Best guess is turbulence induced aircraft structure failure from the telemetry reported, and the previous fault history of the class. Rumors of a lightning strike frying the autopilot and FBW controls do not make any sense to me at all.

 

Rest in peace those aboard. It was not a clean death.

 

Herald

 

Jean Serrat , ex- AirFrance Pilot who flew many time Rio-Paris seems to have a possible explanation backed up by the last automatic messages sent by the aircraft itself (sensors to satellites to CdG airport) .

He said that most probable explanation is that the Airbus went through an extremly cold column of stormy clouds and the airframe was overloaded very quickly with ice , with the result of blinding the sensors , "glueing" the "ailerons" and flaps and restricted the engines airflows in probably less than a minute . Then , the aircraft might have dived to hit the Ocean or might have been dislocated during the plunge .

 

He said that a "lighting strike" doesn 't make sense as he experienced himself the phenomenom more than 6 times during his time and nothing ever happened .

The "black-box" can be as deep as 7000m and could never be found , it has to be noted that this hardware is built to sustain a 6000m pressure . The Atlantic is very deep where they found the debris ...

 

RIP and my prays go the families .

 

Cheers .

From the Associated Press:

 

The report said the pilot sent a manual signal at 11 p.m. local time saying he was flying through an area of ?CBs? — black, electrically charged cumulo-nimbus clouds that come with violent winds and lightning. Satellite data has shown that towering thunderheads were sending 160 km/h updrafts into the jet?s flight path at that time.

Ten minutes later, the plane sent a burst of automatic messages, indicating the autopilot had disengaged, the ?fly-by-wire? computer system had been switched to alternative power, and controls needed to keep the plane stable had been damaged. An alarm also sounded, indicating the deterioration of flight systems, according to the report.

Three minutes after that, more automatic messages indicated the failure of two other fundamental systems pilots use to monitor air speed, altitude and direction. Then, a cascade of other electrical failures in systems that control the main flight computer and wing spoilers.

The report repeats a detail previously released by Brazil?s Air Force: that the last message came at 11:14 p.m., indicating loss of air pressure and electrical failure. The newspaper said this could mean sudden de-pressurization, or that the plane was already plunging into the ocean.

  Is there any precedence for this type of catastrophic failure?

Sorry, but I don't buy this explanation for a minute. I spent the better part of 30 years controlling airplanes for a living and iceing simply does not happen that rapidly. Air carrier a/c are equipped with de-iceing equipment and can handle an awful lot of ice before they find themselves in trouble. Iceing is certainly one of the most deadly hazards to a/c and when it occurs the pilot is going to get himself out of it as quickly as possible, but it just does not happen like this. Then add in the fact that these a/c are equipped with better weather radar then most TV stations that gives them very detailed weather out to some ~300 miles and you cannot MAKE one of those pilots get within 10-20 miles of a severe thunderstorm again makes all this seem pure BS. They don't just all the sudden get *caught by surprise* in some severe weather like some TV stations have been suggesting.

I think what GF posted below about the Spanish pilot seeing a bright flash of light in the area where the Airfrance jet would have been makes more sense and suggests a bomb took this plane down. Add that to the fact that just last Wednesday a bomb threat was issued against an Airfrance jet running the same route from Argentina back to France and it looks even more suspicious and smells of foul play.

 

That's my take on it anyhow.

 

Beazz