Massive Storm Could Have Played a Role in Air France Flight 447 Disappearance

Paris, FRThe Air France Airbus A330 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France, that disappeared last night over the Atlantic Ocean remains missing. No wreckage or debris from the aircraft has been located either.

While the exact fate of the plane and its 228 passengers and crew is not known, the CEO of Air France, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, told the global news media today that the aircraft likely encountered strong turbulence as a result of a major electrical storm, which could have set off a string of events that led to the plane crash.

Air France flight 447 was close to 4 hours out from Rio, well over the Atlantic, when the onboard ACARS (Aircraft Communications and Addressing System) — a digital datalink that automatically transmits service messages from the aircraft to ground stations — sent a message to Air France headquarters regarding a problem with the aircraft's electrical and pressurization systems. But no further messages or contact of any kind has been reported so far.

The airplane was in the mid-Atlantic when it started messaging that it had problems. This area is the incubator for the hurricanes the pummel the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Eastern Seaboard. And this time of year is the beginning of storm season.

One of several possible scenarios that seems likely to have happened is that the Air France flight encountered a massive tropical storm system that could have reached 60,000 feet in height, making it impossible for the aircraft to fly over. As the plane was out of weather radar reach, the pilot could rely on the plane's built-in system, which may have been knocked out by lightning, leaving them without any weather information.

While it is not believed that lightning would have brought the plane down, Bill Voss, president and CEO of Flight Safety Foundation, in Alexandria, Virginia told the Associated Press, "It sounds like something that evolved into a problem, not something that happened instantly."