Over at weathergraphics.com a very detailed meteorological analysis of Air France flight 447 has been published.
Air France flight 447 (AF447), an Airbus A330-200 (F-GZCP / MSN: 660) , was reported missing in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean in the early morning hours of June 1, 2009. The plane was enroute from Rio de Janeiro (SBGL) to Paris (LFPG). Speculation suggested that the plane may have flown into a thunderstorm. The objective of this study was to isolate the aircraft’s location against high-resolution satellite images from GOES-10 to identify any association with thunderstorm activity. Breakup of a plane at higher altitudes in a thunderstorm is not unprecedented; Northwest Flight 705 in 1963 and more recently Pulkovo Aviation Flight 612 in 2006 are clear examples.
Read the study at: http://www.weathergraphics.com/tim/af447/
Hello my name is Zack Noyes and I am a Junior at Waverly High School in Waverly New York. I am taking engineering courses because I am interested in finding out why things happen and not building things. I was surfing the internet and stumbled upon some passages from other webpages. Here is one that I found interesting – “Air France has said that its aircraft suffered a series of upsets in cruising flight over the past two years, which were caused by faulty speed readings and malfunctions in the automatic flight system”. Now after reading that would you take this particular aircraft into a thunderstorm which could be seen on weather radar before takeoff. Most people say that there was no way of knowing that the weather instruments were going to be faulty. And I think thats wrong. (Just what I think). Another website said that the pilot may have been sleeping in his bunk when the weather hit. WHO WAS FLYING THE PLANE!!! You can’t trust auto pilot when flying through a Thunderstorm its a computer and everyone knows lightning computer=CRASH! The pilot has one job to fly the plane but no he couldnt even do that. (once again thats how I feel). They knew that there was going to be a thunderstorm in that region another website said. So why not cancel and reschedule or maybe even find another route. Back to the the qoute at the top. The plane had expierenced malfunctions during regular test flights in normal weather. That tells me that someone wasnt doing there job and now 228 people are dead. The people that let that plane fly after they knew what was going to happen what were they thinking? My mother always said, “Don’t point fingers” and “If you dont have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all”. Put I’m going to ignore her and point the finger of blame on the people that let the plane fly. I hope you can rest easy at night with the thought of 228 Dead. I hope that you respond to this letter even if you disagree to give me your point of view on how you feel. Thank you very much for your time Zack Noyes.