air france crash 2009

air france crash 2009
A schoolboy from Bristol who was returning from half-term holiday is among the 228 people feared dead after an Air France plane disappeared over the Atlantic.
Clifton College prep school confirmed that one of its pupils, Alexander Bjoroy, 11, was one of seven children and five Britons on the passenger list of flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The school's headteacher, John Milne, issued a statement saying: "Alexander joined the school in January 2009, and was a well liked and respected boarder who will be sorely missed by his fellow pupils and staff. Our deepest sympathies and condolences are with the family in Brazil at this time."
The school said no other members of his family were on board.
Pupils heard the news at an assembly this morning. They and their parents have been offered counselling.
Graham Gardner, 55, an oil worker from Gourock, Renfrewshire, was also among the passengers, his employers said today.
He was was master of the Lochnagar, a pipelaying and construction vessel operated by the Aberdeen-based company Subsea 7.
His wife Joyce, 51, said: "I have known Graham for as long as I can remember. He is such a loving, caring and laidback man. Nothing fazed him."
The director of an engineering consultancy for the oil industry, Arthur Coakley, is also understood to have taken the flight.
His wife, Patricia Coakley, said her husband had been returning from a four-week stint in Brazil working on an oil rig.
She recalled her last conversation with her husband, in which he said: "Hello darling. I'm at the airport. I've checked my luggage in. I'm going through."
The family had been planning to begin a holiday in Corfu on Friday. "I was elated," Coakley said. "He was coming home and I was getting organised for our holiday, and that was our last conversation."
She said the couple's two sons and daughter were "distraught", although the family was not giving up hope of her "fabulous, kind" husband being found.
Coakley's business partner, Ken Pearce, said the previous flight he had hoped to board was full.
Coakley is a founding director of the Aberdeen-based Project Design and Management Services Ltd. In a statement, the company said it was "deeply saddened" to confirm that Coakley is understood to have taken the flight. It said he had been working on the installation of drilling equipment on an oil rig.
A young Belfast doctor and part-time dancer with the Riverdance troupe is also missing. Dr Eithne Walls had been working at the Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin, and had been in Brazil with two other Irish doctors, Aisling Butler and Jane Deasy. All three were on the flight. The women were all on a two-week holiday in Brazil and had been friends since they were students at Trinity College Dublin.
Ireland's foreign minister, Michael Martin, said government officials had been in contact with all three victims' families.
"Our embassies in France and Brazil remain in close contact with the authorities investigating the disappearance of the flight," the minister said.
Dr Walls, who was in her 20s, still danced in her spare time and was a member of Riverdance's so called "flying squad" of dancers who once performed on Broadway.
Her friend Aine Rooney, a dancing teacher who had trained with Eithne as a child at the Armstrong School of Irish Dancing, in west Belfast, paid tribute to her friend.
"She was a beautiful person. She had the most caring, kind personality. She was so lovable and a joy to be around. She was a people person."
Aisling Butler's father, John, said he could not describe his family's grief. "We know Aisling is gone, we are sure of that," he said.
"It is just about trying to live now, I have to live for my wife and my only other daughter, Lorna."
He said his daughter, who celebrated her 26th birthday just over two weeks ago, lived for her job as a young doctor but also enjoyed life to the full.
The Irish president,Mary McAleese, said she was thinking about the families of the missing passengers.

air france flight status

air france flight status
Today, the Air France flight AF447 left the Rio de Janeiro airport, and it should have landed at the Paris airport at 09:15 GMT, however, the plane is missing. The pilots of the Airbus A330-200 plane reported a technical fault at the electric circuit, and that they are experiencing turbulence. After that, the AF447 flight has gone missing and there are no news yet. Air France officials said that they don’t know where the plane is at the moment, and they are hoping that all people aboard and the crew are OK.
The AF Airbus A330 had 216 passengers and 12 crew, and the Brazilian officials said that the pilots last reported something at 11 P.M. local time when they were near the island of Fernando de Noronha. This is at about 1,5000 northeast of Rio de Janeiro, between the city of Natal and the island of Ilha do Sal.
President Nicolas Sarkozy said that he is deeply concerned, and he assured people that he will do the utmost to find the Airbus A330-200 plane. I remind you that the missing Air France flight AF447 was carrying 228 people aboard, and we surely hope that all of them are OK.
The Airbus A330-200 is considered one of the safest planes, and such aircraft didn’t have a fatal commercial flight crash. According to experts, the A330 shouldn’t go down in flight or when climbing to the flight route as accidents happen when landing or when planes take off. Also, the Air France didn’t have a fatal crash since July 2000 when a Concorde plane crashed, but the supersonic airplanes aren’t used for commercial flights anymore.
We will keep you updated with the Air France Flight AF447 status, and we hope that the passengers of the Airbus A330-200 will be found safe and alive.