Timeline of the disappearance of Air France flight 447:
All times are universal time, or Greenwich Mean Time. At this time of year, Seattle is seven hours behind GMT.
May 31:
22:03 — Air France flight 447 departs from Rio de Janeiro. (Brazilian Air Force says plane left at 22:30.)
June 1:
01:30 — Plane has last contact with Brazil air traffic control, where it is 351 miles from the city of Natal.
01:48 — Brazilian Air Force has last radar contact. Plane appears to be flying normally.
02:00 — Aircraft hits a zone of stormy weather with strong turbulence
02:14 — An automatic message was received from the aircraft at indicating a failure in the electric circuit a long way from the coast.
02:20 — Plane fails to make previously scheduled radio contact with Brazil. Brazil notifies air traffic control in Dakar, Senegal.
05:00 – 06:00 — Brazilian, African, Spanish and French air traffic control centers try to make contact with the flight, but are not successful. The French military air traffic control center cannot detect the aircraft.
05:30 — Brazilian Air Force starts a search and rescue mission
07:30 — Air France sets up a crisis center
09:15 — Flight was expected to arrive in Paris
11:31 — Air France announces the following: “Air France regrets to announce that it has lost contact with flight AF 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, expected to arrive this morning at 11:15 local time.”
13:10 — Air France announces the following: “Air France regrets to confirm the disappearance of flight AF 447 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris-Charles de Gaulle, scheduled to arrive at 11:10am local time today, as announced to the press by Air France CEO, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.”
13:59 — Air France reports that it has sent all of the information it has regarding the flight to the French Accident Investigation Bureau for civil aviation (BEA) and to Airbus
14:44 — By this time, the airplane is expected to have run out of fuel. Air France publicizes “its deepest sympathy to the relatives and friends of the passengers and crew who were on board AF flight 447 on 31 May 2009, which disappeared somewhere between Rio de Janeiro and Paris-Charles de Gaulle.”
Airbus also announces, “Airbus regrets to confirm that an Airbus A330-200 operated by Air France has been lost about 3.5 hours after departure.”
18:13 — Air France releases a list of the nationalities on board
(Sources:
“Flight Safety Information” is a service of:
Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP
CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC
(Targeting Safety & Risk Management)
curt@curt-lewis.com
www.curt-lewis.com
www.fsinfo.org)
Cathay Dragon flight KA-342 made an emergency landing in Hong Kong, China, on April 13th.
LATAM Airlines Brasil flight JJ-3067 had to make an emergency landing in Brasilia, Brazil, on March 3rd.
