This is not the happiest day, nor is it the saddest for the families of those who were killed in the crash of Air France Flight 447 two years ago. The correct term is "bittersweet," as finally deep-diving submarines have located a large portion of the airliner two-and-a-half miles underwater, well off the coast of Brazil. With the discovery of the engines, pieces of the fuselage and the landing gear comes the recovery of more bodies and—hoping against hope—perhaps the black box.

The AP video above explains why locating the flight recorder ("black box") is so important, even though two years of seawater may have taken its toll. If any information can be pulled from it, then there is a chance that the world may finally learn what happened to cause the sudden disappearance of the plane from the skies. The current theory is heavy turbulence and issues stemming from "high-altitude storm" it hit between Rio de Janeiro and Paris. ]]> JetSetCD 2011-04-04T16:40:50-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/27/165226/16

The blame game in that horrible crash of Air France Flight 447 is intensifying, even while everyone admits they still have no idea what caused the disaster. The latest dust up involves management taking some potshots at Air France pilots for their attention to detail, and the pilots responding with angry statements.

Now it's unseemly enough to have the parties involved publicly bickering with each other in full view of the nation and the victims' families. But it's not a real party until self-important unions get involved and start talking about the pilots' hurt feelings. And wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what's happening:]]> Omri 2009-10-27T17:04:43-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/21/105354/027

With just over a week left to retrieve the black box of Air France Flight 447 before it gives up the ghost, search teams and airline authorities are beginning to wind down and instead turn their focus onto the families of the victims.

Although they've recovered approximately fifty bodies of the 228 on board and whole sections of the aircraft's galley, CNN reports that the "head of the French accident investigation board, Paul-Louis Arslanian, said this week that there is a chance the entire aircraft may never be found." Aircraft wreckage or not, Air France will begin compensating the families of the deceased, to the tune of $24,500 per victim regardless of class flown.

In addition to the money, Air France has sent counselors to the aid of some 1,800 relatives of the victims, who were of 32 different nationalities. The Wikipedia page on the tragedy has a graph of these nationalities and how many were on board, showing some from Gabon, Estonia and Lebanon even. This next week should bring the conclusion of major searches, but we're far from having questions answered.

Related Stories:
· Air France pays $24,500 to crash victims' families [CNN]
· Air France Black Box Search Borrows The Titanic's Sub [Jaunted]
· Flight 447 Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: AP]]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-22T08:47:15-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/7/225936/0820

It's been exactly a week now since the mysterious disappearance of Air France Flight 447 somewhere off the coat of Brazil. At first, it seemed as though the search parties were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, with no definite search area and not even a solid guarantee that the flight had hit the ocean.

Earlier last week, what appeared to be debris from the fatal flight had been found, but this was determined to be run-of-the-mill ocean trash on Thursday. As of this weekend, be-logoed Air France airplane pieces have been found along with the bodies of 17 passengers, therefore confirming that the plane met with a tragic fate. ]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-08T08:47:07-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/6/143738/6106

It's a small consolation, but the families of two victims of last Sunday's crash of Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris will at least have some closure, as searchers announced they had recovered two bodies from the otherwise scarce wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean. The BBC reported Saturday afternoon that two male bodies had been found, along with objects linked to passengers known to be on the flight, including a leather briefcase with a ticket for the flight inside. The bodies and objects were found several hundred kilometers off Brazil's northern coast, not far from where the flight emitted its last signals. ]]> Victor Ozols 2009-06-06T14:37:38-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/2/9550/81880

Naturally, after hearing reports of a passenger jet going mysteriously silent from contact over the Atlantic Ocean with electrical failure hints, one thinks of the huge enigma that is the Bermuda Triangle. Rest assured, however, that the fate of Air France Flight 447 definitely will not include an entry into the disappearances of the Triangle, since it was no where near the area.

After setting out from Rio de Janeiro, the plane encountered storms and lost contact somwhere around the equator, where now search teams are finding airplane seats floating some 350 miles northeast of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago.

Still the skeptics would like to heighten the drama by associating the Bermuda Triangle with this recent mystery. What's next—asserting that the Triangle is now some sort of giant trapezoid? Perhaps the mysterious area got bored with hanging out off the US coast and decided to journey to Brazil for some caipirinhas?

Although authorities haven't yet confirmed that the floating seats are indeed from the missing Air France jet, it's pretty easy to see on the map above that for once, this possible tragedy has nothing to do with aliens or electromagnetic fields or the ghost of Amelia Earhart. It does, however, have everything to do with freak accidents and airplane safety.

Related Stories:
· Plane seats found floating on Air France route [AP]
· Wreckage seen in search area for missing plane [CNN]
· Flight 447 Coverage [Jaunted]

[Air France photo: caribb] ]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-02T09:46:41-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/6/1/10938/85619

This morning's beautiful weather quickly turned sour as the world learned of the possible loss of Air France Flight 447, traveling from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris with 228 people on board.

Around 10pm EST, the twin-engine Airbus hit turbulence caused by storms over the Atlantic Ocean, causing an automatic message "signaling electrical circuit malfunction" to be sent out from the airplane. According the AP, there has been no other information regarding the fate of the plane except for the simple admittance that Brazil's air force has begun "searching near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha," an area 1,500 miles northeast of Rio.

Flight 447, which was supposed to have arrived at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport at 5:15am EST, is feared to have been hit by lightning. If lost, this possible crash would be the first for Air France since the tragedy of the Concorde's 2000 crash, which killed 113 people. Now however, we're looking at double the loss of life and a much more difficult location and recovery area.

We simply can't hold back: is anyone else thinking of Oceanic Flight 815? We'll be hoping for the best and watching the news as it rolls in, attempting to banish thoughts of Lost from our heads.

Related Stories:
· Air France Missing Plane May Be First Fatal Loss Since Concorde [Bloomberg]
· Missing French jet hit thunderstorms over Atlantic [AP]
· Tragedies Coverage [Jaunted]

[Air France photo: caribb]]]> JetSetCD 2009-06-01T10:25:40-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/