This crash was a puzzler because Air France flight 447 fell from the sky three hours into the trip, rather than in ascent or landing, when many accidents occur, in addition to the fact it took so long to find the black boxes, some 2.5 miles below the surface of the central Atlantic Ocean.
It's horrifying to consider that the plane took 4.5 minutes to drop out of the sky from 35,000 feet, killing all 228 aboard. Lifejackets were never removed from their wrapping, nor any Mayday signal sent.
The overnight flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 5/31/2009 started out routinely, but things went awry after the senior pilot left the cockpit to take a rest, leaving the plane in control of two other flight officers as the jet encountered rough skies.
The first sign of a problem was when air-traffic controllers in Senegal tried to contact the plane but got no response. Soon the world was told that the plane had vanished -- a shock to many, given the airline's superior safety record.
It's horrifying to consider that the plane took 4.5 minutes to drop out of the sky from 35,000 feet, killing all 228 aboard. Lifejackets were never removed from their wrapping, nor any Mayday signal sent.
The overnight flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 5/31/2009 started out routinely, but things went awry after the senior pilot left the cockpit to take a rest, leaving the plane in control of two other flight officers as the jet encountered rough skies.
The first sign of a problem was when air-traffic controllers in Senegal tried to contact the plane but got no response. Soon the world was told that the plane had vanished -- a shock to many, given the airline's superior safety record.
