Local Stations 
 

Pick your location

All CTV Stations

 

Related TV Shows

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl

CTV News | Brazil finds wreckage of Air France jet in the Atlantic

Top Stories -   

News Sections

Canada

World

Entertainment

Sports

Business

Sci-Tech

Health

Politics

Weather

News Programs

CTV National News with Lloyd Robertson

Canada AM

W5

Features

Autos

Consumer

Browse:

Video

Galleries

MyNews

News Team Bios

Sign up for Alerts, Mednews Express, weather and more

Home

Schedule

Home : Top Stories : Brazil finds wreckage of Air France jet in the Atlantic

Brazil finds wreckage of Air France jet in the Atlantic

Viewer

CTV News Video

CTV News: Tom Kennedy on death and debris
CTV News Channel: Aaron Twa, Victoria Joint rescue Centre, on the difficult task ahead
CTV News Channel: Georges Plourde, former airline pilot, on possible causes of the planes disappearance
CTV News Channel: Jack Gallagher, search and rescue expert, on the massive size of the search
CTV News Channel: ITN's Robert Moore from Paris on the possible wreckage
Canada AM: Vernon Gross, aviation analyst, on whether any plane wreckage will be found
CTV National News: Tom Kennedy on the vanished plane that defies explanation
CTV National News: Aviation expert Mark Miller on possible explanations for Air France flight 447
CTV News Channel: Christopher Yates, aviation safety consultant, on the disappearance of the Air France plane

Watch: See all Videos in the Player

Font-size:      Share  Print  Comments(73)

CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Tue. Jun. 2 2009 11:18 PM ET

Brazil's defence ministry says a five-kilometre path of debris spotted Tuesday in the Atlantic Ocean is the wreckage from an Air France jet that crashed two days ago.

Defence Minister Nelson Jobin said the debris "confirms that the plane went down" several hundred kilometres north of the Fernando de Noronha islands, an area in line with the plane's flight path to Paris.

Earlier in the day, Brazilian air force pilots spotted an orange life buoy, airplane seat, debris and signs of fuel.

The plane disappeared with 228 passengers and crew on board on Sunday during a flight between Rio de Janeiro and Paris, France.

Three commercial ships were in the area on Tuesday and France planned to send a ship capable of deep-water exploration to join the search.

Brazilian air force spokesperson Jorge Amaral said the pilots spotted two separate debris fields about 60 kilometres away from each other. However, they saw no signs of life.

"The locations where the objects were found are toward the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted," Amaral said. "That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis."

French and Brazilian military aircraft had been searching a vast section of ocean between Brazil and the west coast of Africa, for signs of the plane.

U.S. satellite technology was also being used in the search.

On Monday afternoon, a family member confirmed to CTV News that 49-year-old Brad Clemes, originally from Guelph, Ont., was among those on the flight.

Clemes was an employee with Coca-Cola living in Belgium who was born and raised in Southern Ontario, according to reports.

Along with Clemes, the airline said Monday that 61 French people, 58 Brazilians, 26 Germans and nine Italians were on board, among others.

Investigators have been trying to piece together what happened in the final moments before the jetliner vanished over the Atlantic Ocean.

The plane disappeared from radar screens around 10:14 p.m. ET Sunday, roughly four hours after taking off from Rio, bound for Paris.

It vanished after sending automated messages saying it had encountered a storm and had experienced electrical problems.

If no survivors are found, the incident will be the deadliest commercial crash since 2001.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday afternoon that the "prospects of finding survivors are very small."


Comments are now closed for this story

maggie c in sudbury
said

My condolences to the families.


cindydwyer
said

my condolences are with the families,this is very sad and heart breaking.my thoughts and prayers are with you all.


Fed-Up Canadian!!!
said

Very sad indeed! My prayers are with the families. I hope they get some answers.


Bob in Ottawa
said

I can only pray for their souls and give prayers of comfort to the Families involved.
May they rest in peace.


Peggy Carroll, Cole Harbour, NS
said

What a terrible tragedy. Hopefully there will be assistance for the rescue/recovery workers. Thoughts and prayers.


Marcela from Brazil
said

It's been terrible for these families haven't known yet what really happened. I hope the air force and navy find the aircraft as soon as possible. I sympathize with those who have lost loved ones. Rest in peace.


Marcela from Brazil
said

It's been terrible for these families haven't known yet what really happened. I hope the air force and navy find the aircraft as soon as possible. I sympathize with those who have lost loved ones. Rest in peace.


John
said

What a horrible accident and my deepest condolences to all the families.
You just wonder how they would expect to retrieve the black boxes when the ocean is so deep at this point.


Frank Curran
said

A catastrophy, my heart goes out to the families and friends of the passengers..........Frank


Rachelle
said

I offer my sympathies to their loved ones. What a tragedy.


Ally
said

What terrible news, it certainly doesn't look very good for this plane.

I wonder what is meant by the receiving of an automated message from the plane?




rita gomes
said

Rita Gomes-Toronto
My condolences to the families.My thoughts are with them.


Julius R
said

I'm so saddened by this tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go to the 228 souls whose bodies may never be recovered at all, and the families and loved ones left behind. I hope that the bodies are all found so that their loved ones can find closure in the loss of family members and friends.


Sad in the aviation world
said

how Sad.
Why don't these planes use GPS.. such that the TAM pilot would take a GPS reading when he saw the possible points of fire and narrow down the search area? or any plane that sends a distress signal of any sort should automatically have a GPS reading with that signal...
Hind sight is always 20/20 in the wake of unforseen tragedy.
God speed


greatful for life
said

My heart goes out to all the mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, grandmothers, grandfathers, sisters, brothers....to all who have been affected by this tragedy. I cannot imagine the pain and confusion you must be going thru. My prayers are with you!


Sudbury
said

Very very sad. I hope the families will get some answer as to what happened. Until then, my condolences and prayers.


SG
said

Why do they always say how many Canadians are involved? They always do it when there's a tragedy and I've never really understood why. Unless it's to "bring the story home". But to me, it's never really made a story more or less tragic.

I heard on CNN yesterday that they think the plane was hit by lightning. I thought planes got hit all the time.


K.Matroskin
said

I still don't get it. Modern GPS system for $200 shows me change in position when I move from one room to another in my house. And authorities are saying us that they only can pinpoint the plane to the area twice bigger than Europe.
Also, as I heard, modern radars cannot see the plane above Atlantic only if it flies on very low altitude. It takes about 5-7 hours to cross Europe from West to East. Are they saying that this jet could go on very low altitude and continue flying for 10-14 hours without radio contact?
In short, I don't believe that they don't have exact position of aircraft plus-minus a few kilometers after the plane went below radar visibility.


From The East
said

To Sad in the aviation world

Aircraft, like the A330 do use GPS and in some instances they do transmit this information to ground stations. In addition, ground radar also tracks aircraft position and altitude. Unfortunately, aircraft that venture out over the Atlantic or Pacific sometimes fall into blind holes where even the best technology does not always provide the answers we are looking for. Once the flight data and voice cockpit recorders are recovered, answers will follow. Until then, it does no service to arm chair the cause or events that lead to this tragic event.



Peg city Gal
said

Prayer for their souls and give prayers of comfort to the Families involved.
May they rest in peace.



Craig in Edmonton
said

SG: They say how many Canadians are involved because this is CTV, a CANADIAN network.


Alam
said

My prayers for the departed souls. I also pray to God to give strength to the families to overcome this catastrophe.


Jim in Ottawa
said

These planes are equiped with life rafts, I still think there are survivors!



marina de vellis
said

My heart goes out to the families and my deepest sympathies.


Suzanne Lajeunesse
said

my condolences to all there families, it is a sad day.


corporate pilot
said

The weather radar is used to avoid weather and the cummulonimbus cloud. You should slow down the airplane and fly arround the cloud usually 20 miles out. You don't need a GPS to do that.
It's bizzare that they went towards a storm like that. It doesn't make sense to me.
I went through a squall line once and I will never do that again.


Debbie ( Alberta)
said

Our deepest condolences goes out to all the families and friends of this tragic incident. Our prayers are with you all.


Jennifer patrick Berens River, Manitoba
said

It's very hard when you pick up the newspaper or turn on the t.v. That something very drastic has to always hit you in a very painful way. My prayers and thoughts are with you. God answers all prayers and hope each family gets some answers.


Tono
said

Do you know what they mean by "U.S. satellite technology"? GPS. The GPS satnav system is entirely American.

I guess this is where they send divers down.

I guess this is Saint Anthony answering our prayers from yesterday.


Carole
said

My sympathies go out to all the family and friends that have lost loved ones.

Seems the Airbus does not have that good a track record. The last one to go down after this one was Nov 12 2001, 265 lost; Feb 16 1998, 203 lost, Sept 26 1997, 234 lost, Apr 26 1994, 264 lost...and that is just the Airbusses,I think my two feet will remain on the ground.

Again, my prayers are with the families.

God bless you all.


Melissa
said

This is a very sad day for those who were on that flight! It scares me knowing that terrible things could happen while on a plane as I have never been! I hope the families of the passengers can get some answers! So sad (hugs to all the families)


Military Aviator
said

I just heard that the "electrical problem" reported by the aircraft was a rapid loss of cabin pressure. Based on my military experience (1400 hours flying time on P3's), that alone shouldn't cause a crash unless there was a structural malfunction similar to Aloha Airlines in 1988.


Bill from Kingston
said

I used to fly from Canada to Rio, and the thunderstorms over Brazil and towards the East over the ocean were absolutely frightening. The were too high to go over them, and you had to have enough fuel to divert around them. If you tried to pick your way through them the problem was that the radar only shows the ones directly in front of you, and not the ones which are behind. You sometimes get through an area between them only to find that you have a wall of them in front of you. It would not surprise me if this isn't what happened. Then they could have experienced extreme turbulence, lightning strikes, and complete electrical failure as a result. As the modern aircraft are fly-by-wire, if you lose all electrical you lose all control. Basically what happened I'm sure was a catastrophic failure due to severe thunderstorm activity.


Lina
said

My deepest condolences to all the families.
May they all rest in peace.


Franziska, West Vancouver BC
said

This is the ultimate nightmare! My thoughts and prayers are with everybody affected by this terrible tragedy. Carpe Diem.


Jay
said

How sad. I hate it when these types of tragedies occur. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.


MAL
said

Within days of the new super-plane making its first landing in Canada, mother nature reminds us again who is the boss. I hope the event was mercilessly quick and my sympathies to the families.


Paco
said

Mes prières sont avec vous!


V.L. in Burlington
said

My deepest condolences go to the families.


KJ in Kingston Ontario
said

It's interesting that planes have been following this flight path since 1947 without a loss, so perhaps there's "climate change" issue involved in this disaster. Like many people have said before: it is not the Earth will suffer the effects of climate change -- humans will.


Ravi S., Edmonton
said

I can only hope that this is the debris of the missing plane. My deepest condolences and sympathies are with the families of the people on-board.


CYL
said

So sad ! helpless feeling when something like this happens. But, whatever happened, hope we will learn the truth soon.


Tazzy
said

It's terrible for those who have families on board and haven't known yet what really happened. I am wishing and hoping find the aircraft as soon as possible. I sympathize with those who have lost loved ones. My Prayers are with them



Gino Under
said

It's unfortunate the uninformed comment on things they know nothing about. It only adds fear and speculation to the unsolved mystery surrounding this tragic accident. People think the answer is to NOT fly. How unfortunate.



KC-Bby
said

Unlike others here, I'm toojaded to be "saddened" by any more losses. With 1 million dead Iraqi's some how another 220 ppl don't seem to put me off any more.


Denis in Maple Ridge
said

I wish to offer my sincere condolences to all families involved, may all on board rest in peace.


St. Catharines
said

Now they're saying that 2 debris fields are 60 kms apart. That tells me that the plane probably broke apart in mid air...was it a bomb?
Very sad for all aboard and their families.


Stephanie/Shihan/Stephan Charles
said

We offer our sympathies to their loved ones. What a tragedy. our prayers are with the families who lost their loved few days ago.



jennifer
said

I am so sorry my deepest condolences to your families.

xx God bless


S Primus
said

to KJ in Kingston... that is the most absurd and harebrained statement I have heard regarding this event. Never stopped to think that the exact same type of severe storm patterns have existed in that area for all of recorded weather history, did you? Nope, it must be the SUV tailpipes that brought down this flight. Get real!


mike
said

I am an Airbus pilot and wish to clear up one thing. Airplanes are designed to be hit by lightning, I have been hit myself. Yes airbus aircraft are fly-by wire with several systems backing each other up. If you lose all systems you will still have a backup generator called a RAT that will provide minimal elec power and hydraulic power. Also even if that failed you at the bare minimum have a Mechanical link to a hydraulic actuator that will move the rudder allowing for basic basic steering of a plane, differentail power from the engines can also work...Pilots carry fuel knowing of these weather areas. This is a tragic accident and I feel for all involved, I hope they can find the FDR and CVR to help figure this out.


Vancouver Islander
said

To KC-Bby: I doubt that you would feel so jaded if one of the passengers on that plane was somebody you loved -- each person on that plane -- just as each person killed in Iraq -- was a living being with hopes and dreams and people who loved them -- imagine going to that airport to meet somebody you loved, and finding out that they had seemingly vanished from the face of the earth -- my guess is that you would not be so blase about it then.


Drew from Ottawa
said

France hasn't ruled out terrorism, however, one must think logically: if the two seperate debris fields are about 60km's apart, would one not first think that it's the ocean current that created the distance? But at this point, anything could have happened. Let's pray it wasn't terrorism. If it does turn out to be, then this would open a whole new chapter.


Mashrab
said

My prayers are with families of the passengers. i hope they get some news.


Brent
said

If the voice and flight data recorders are recovered we might have some answers. But finding those in 12,000 feet of water over that size of an area is nearly impossible.


paul
said

Its very sad to lose someone in your family and my words won't fill that gap and a hole that has been made in your hearts. My sincerest condolences and sympathies go to all the families who have lost their loved ones in this tragedy. May their souls rest in peace and God be with them.


Ziggy from Ottawa
said

The U.S. satellite technology is exactly the type of stuff you see in shows like "Enemy of the State" or "The Bourne Ultimatum" etc. Spy satellites can have their flight path adjusted to fly over certain areas at certain times and the resolution adjusted to try to see if anything is on the surface of the water as they fly overhead. On the next pass of the same satellite they can target a different area. Once they see something, search and rescue planes can be diverted for a closer look.


Safdar Akbari
said

My question to Mike:
With all the time, money and efforts being spent on aviation safety when will we actually make air travel 100% safe??


Doug BC
said

Sincere condolances to all the families of those on board.For once,it's nice to read these posts and not find whole lot of losers posting a lot of political spin.
As to "Ally's" post,from what I understand from the news is that the "automated message" from the plane is a message send by the computers on board to inform the maintenance department of any anomolies in on board systems.It apparently is send without input by the crew,and most likely without them even knowing the message went out.Apparently this is quite routine n modern airplane systems.
Like others,I hope the day comes when we all know,for sure,exactly what caused this tragic loss.
Planes do get struck by lightning regularly,and without serious damage.I guess that still doesn't rule that out as a cause because it still seems possible that voltage like that cah cripple computer systems like the ones used to control most of the functions on this plane.
Not to dash the hopes of those still clinging to the hought of survivors,but a safe landing on water,with this kind of an airplane is extremely unlikely.Made more unlikely by the conditions they were flying in,and the rough seas they were over.A great deal more challenging than the Hudson River landing of a few months ago.
I am puzzled by "Caroles" assertion that this plane has a bad record.I could be wrong here,but I actually thought it had an extremely good record.Does anyone else have accurate information regarding that?


Kevino
said

Carole:

The statement regarding "Airbuses" is ignorant. All modern aircraft are very safe.

Unfortunately when there are air tragedies many people parish at one time. Don't forget that on average 200 people die in traffic accidents in the world daily. Do you drive a car? Should we make dumb statements like; it looks like "Dodge Trucks" have a bad track record because hundreds of people die in them a year!


Geoff, Calgary
said

"fly by wire" is such a mis-nomer.

Aircraft used to fly by wire - literally steel cables between the yoke and control surfaces. Even if servo-assist was lost, the pilots could still brute-force their combined controls.

"Fly by computer/electronics" would be more accurate, and the whole concept has always worried me when applied to commercial aircraft. Loss of electronics leaves no hope of control.

Inherently unstable fighter aircraft may need the speed of computer corrections, but is it really needed in commercial passenger service?





Gotsilemang
said

My utmost sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who were on board that flight and to Erich Heine,a South African who was an executive on the board of German company, ThyssenKrupp Steel.
May their souls rest in peace


Shehz
said

If it was an explosion/implosion (like TWA), the ATC would have picked it up, hence we can rule that out.
Like some are suggesting, total electric failure, even then, there is a back-up radio battery/power (like duracell's) and they can contact and report the situation to an ATC. Just the void of any communication whatsoever is a mystery itself.

B-777 has a manual setup, if the fly-by-wire fails, everything else fails, they can still fly the jet manually. Can anyone confirm if the A-330 can fly manually if all else fails?


Eric
said

I understand that this is an horrific tragedy, but let us move on and hope that the investigators will come up with a definitive answer to the accident so that their findings can be applied to make air travel in general a safer proposition whether the fault be weather, terrorism, or aircraft failure.


RH Calgary
said

BC-Bby, Why would you even think about writing such a public comment when so many lives have been impacted by this event. Keep these types of comments to yourself. Not only do I pray for the lives of the people gone and their loved ones who have to deal with this, I pray for you that some day you may understand the loss of a loved. Keep your unthoughful comments to yourself.


Lisa
said

to Jim in Ottawa - life rafts? in the middle of the ocean? Please - don't be naive. Apparently the weather is/was very bad and if a plane hits the water with full force nothing, but absolutely nothing will stay intact! Sorry, but it's wishful thinking on your part.


Mar
said

1. The aircraft that reported the orange fires would have been GPS equipped. As was reported earlier they were not aware a plane was missing so they did not note their exact location.

2. Most RADAR works on line of site and has a maximum range (approx. 200NM). So most of the Atlantic is beyond RADAR coverage.

Severe thunderstorms hit heights of 60,000 feet and higher so they are imposiblle to fly over.


Julia Tassone
said

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of this tragedy.


KH
said

Karen - Calgary
My deepest sympathies to all families and friends of those lives lost. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you.

The angels are always near to those who are grieving,
to whisper to them that their loved ones are safe in the hand of God.
-Eileen Elias Freeman






Donald K Munroe
said

Everyday, thousands of travellers board jetliners across this world to fly to their respective destinations
for personel, business and pleasure. There is always the chance of hijackings, crashes and a terrorist attacks, but flying six and a half above earth in passenger airliners has to be the safest means of travel on this planet.
Furthermore, how many people die (each year) in Canada through automobile accidents than by plane crashes?


Duncan in the Peg
said

Very sad, it's a shame that terrible tragedies like this are the usual way that new technologie(s) gets approved for use in aircraft.

I mean, more powerful locators that will still operate and be recieved through deep water for one.


shirlee stewart
said

my condolences to all the families that lost a loved one.my thoughts are with them.


Sisi
said

This is a terrible accident (or whatever happened).I pray for the souls of those passengers and their loved ones. I can not imagine the horror those passengers went through even if it was quick.


User Tools

Share with your social Network:

 

Advertisement

Related Stories

Contest

User Tools

About the tools

Need to get in touch with CTV? You can email the CTV web team using the 'Feedback' button.

Share it with your network of friends

Share this CTV article or feature with your friends. Click on the icon for your favourite social networking or messaging system, and follow the prompts.

Share this article with Facebook

Share this article with Digg

Share this article with Newsvine

Share this article with delicious

Share this article.
Send Email

Share this article with Twitter

Share this article with StumbleUpon

Share this article with Reddit

Share this article with Yahoo! Buzz

Most Viewed News Stories

View More News Stories

Most Talked about Stories

I applaud the budget, even though Health Care and education may stay unscathed. Sadly this cannot last and I worry to later this year where cuts will become enviable. If anything, this provides the Wildrose Alliance plenty of ammo when an election is called.

J Stad

Alberta going for broke with record $4.7B budget deficit

Got something to say? Share on CTV News

News Categories

Shows