Update, June 2: Here is an interesting piece from the London Daily Mail with graphics of the timeline. The lightning strike was nearly an hour before the electronic signals alerting Air France to a power failure. The news reports yesterday made it sound like these were simultaneous events.
Original post:
An Airbus A330-200 is involved in the missing Air France flight that has surpassed fuel exhaustion time.
The airplane reported an electrical problem in proximity to a storm with heavy turbulence.
The A330 up to now had a perfect safety record with passengers on board (there was a fatal crash involving a test flight carrying only pilots and engineers). But there were recent incidents with Qantas Airways in which it was believed electronic signals from a nearby military installations interfered with electronic systems. In one instance, the plane lost altitude at a rapid rate.
Top on the list of investigative points will be (in no particular order) whether the electrical problem magnified to cause loss of control; whether the storm caused an “upset” and loss of control; whether the storm may have caused turbulence severe enough to prompt a structural failure; and whether a bomb or other terrorist act may have been involved.
The plane was 3-3 1/2 hours into the flight when the problems were reported and said to be near an island. There was no immediate indication whether the island had a landing strip.
Weather forensics.
http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/
There is too much speculation around yet, about this missing aircraft.
Debris found does not belong to the missing aircraft.
Oil carpet found does not belong to the missing aircraft.
Reports of electrical problems during flight in heavy storm conditions are nothing uncommon.
Actually we don’t know anything about this incident, except that an Airbus A330 aircraft disappeared somewhere over the atlantic ocean, with 220 passengers and crew on board.
Maybe it was an error by the pilot.
Maybe it was caused by natural forces.
Maybe it was an engine failure.
Maybe it was a terrorist attack.
Maybe we will never be able to find out what was the cause for this tragic loss.