02 JUN 2009 **************************** Possible Debris From Missing Jet Found; Pilots Report Seeing Fire in Ocean Along Plane's Route By MARCO SIBAJA, AP Brazil (June 2) - Brazil's Air Force says it has found airplane seats and other debris floating in the Atlantic Ocean along the path that a missing Air France jet was flying. Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral says the seats were spotted by search planes early Tuesday morning but that authorities cannot immediately confirm they were from the plane. 'An Awful Tragedy'Family Photo10 photos Americans Anne and Michael Harris, who lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were among the 228 people on board the Air France jet that disappeared over the Atlantic on the way from Brazil to Paris Monday. Possible debris from the jet was spotted by Brazil's Air Force in the Atlantic Tuesday.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker) Also spotted were small white pieces of debris, material that may be metallic and signs of oil and kerosene, which is used as jet fuel. The debris was found about 390 miles (650 kilometers) northeast of the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha. The plane disappeared with 228 people aboard. Our new toolbar integrates latest news into your Web browser and installs in seconds. Download It Now Was Flight 447 downed by wind and hail from towering thunderheads? By lightning? Or by a catastrophic combination of factors? Investigators were mulling several theories as to why the plane disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean, while Brazilian and French military aircraft scoured a vast swath of ocean between Brazil and the African coast for the Airbus A330. The flight left Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night en route to Paris - only to vanish after issuing an automated message that the electrical system had failed. Brazil's largest airline, TAM, released a statement late Monday saying that pilots flying one of its commercial flights from Paris to Rio spotted what they thought was fire in the ocean along the Air France jet's route. Air Force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral told the Agencia Brasil official news service that authorities were investigating the report. "There is information that the pilot of a TAM aircraft saw several orange points on the ocean while flying over the region," he said. Two Brazilian air force jets were conducting night searches over the Atlantic early Tuesday. Six Brazilian aircraft, including two helicopters, were involved in the search, authorities said. The first of three Brazilian ships was expected to arrive in the remote area Wednesday. Authorities have asked any commercial vessels in the area to aid in the search and France sought U.S. satellite help to find the wreckage. A French search plane took off from a military base in Senegal on Monday, to be joined by two more and a naval vessel. With nothing more to go on than the last point where Flight 447 made contact - about 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) northeast of the Brazilian coastal city of Natal - search teams faced an immense area of open ocean, with depths as much as 15,000 feet (4,570 meters). Recent Air AccidentsMark Randall, South Florida Sun-Sentinel / MCT33 photos A small plane slammed into a home after taking off from the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida on April 17. The pilot had reported a problem and was on his way back to the airport when he crashed. The accident killed the 80-year-old pilot and destroyed the house, but no one on the ground was hurtIf there are no survivors, as feared, it would be the world's worst aviation disaster since 2001. On board the flight were 61 French citizens, 58 Brazilians, 26 Germans, nine Chinese and nine Italians. A lesser number of citizens from 27 other countries also were on the passenger list, including two Americans. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he told family members of passengers that prospects of finding survivors are "very small." Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed hope that survivors could be found. Air France was helping Brazilian relatives of the passengers at the airport in Rio. Bernardo Ciriaco, a civil servant, said he arrived at the airport in a panic because he knew his brother Gustavo was on one of two Air France flights heading to Paris on Sunday night. About two hours later, he received a phone call from Gustavo, telling him he had landed safely in Europe. Gustavo told him that he had been bumped to the flight that is missing but had insisted that he be allowed on the booked earlier flight and arrived safely. "Our family is so relieved," Ciriaco said. Skip over this content Retired professor Vasdir Ester told the Terra Web site that her 40-year-old daughter Adriana Francisca Van Sluings was on the flight. Ester said Van Sluings is afraid of flying and was very worried before taking the flight. While what happened to the plane has not been determined, a Pentagon official said he'd seen no indication of terrorism or foul play. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject. Sarkozy said the cause of the plane's disappearance remains unclear and that "no hypothesis" is being excluded. The plane was cruising normally at 35,000 feet (10,670 meters) and 522 mph (840 kph) just before it disappeared nearly four hours into the flight. No trouble was reported as the plane left radar contact, beyond Brazil's Fernando de Noronha archipelago, at 10:48 p.m. local time (9:48 p.m. EDT Sunday, 0148 GMT Monday). But just north of the equator, a line of towering thunderstorms loomed. Bands of extremely turbulent weather stretched across the Atlantic toward Africa, as they often do in the area this time of year. The plane "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence," Air France said. About 14 minutes later, at 11:14 p.m. local time, (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday, 0214 GMT Monday), an automatic message was sent reporting electrical system failure and a loss of cabin pressure. Air France said the message was the last it heard from Flight 447. Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse said a lightning strike could have damaged the plane. Henry Margusity, a senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com, noted that the thunderstorms towered up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) in the area, so it was possible that the plane flew directly into the most charged part of the storm - the top of it. Other experts doubted a bolt of lightning would be enough to bring the jet down. Some pointed to turbulence as a more dangerous factor. "Lightning issues have been considered since the beginning of aviation. They were far more prevalent when aircraft operated at low altitudes. They are less common now since it's easier to avoid thunderstorms," said Bill Voss, president and CEO of Flight Safety Foundation, in Alexandria, Virginia. Voss said planes are built to dissipate electricity along the aircraft's skin, and are tested for resistance to big electromagnetic shocks. Former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall said that since the A330 is widely used in international travel it was vitally important to locate the black boxes as quickly as possible and analyze what happened to Flight 447. "At this point accident investigators can't rule out anything," he said. "But these aircraft are designed to withstand almost any lightning strikes or any level of turbulence." Although aviation experts stressed it was much too early to speculate about the causes of the crash, they noted that the accident was most likely caused by various factors that combined to cause a catastrophic chain of events. "It sounds like something that evolved into a problem, not something that happened instantly," Voss said. "It would appear that their systems were degrading but we don't know why they were degrading." The plane disappeared in an area of the mid-Atlantic ocean not covered by radar. Brazilian, African, Spanish and French air traffic controllers tried in vain to establish contact. Air France-KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said the pilot had 11,000 hours of flying experience, including 1,700 hours flying this aircraft. Experts said the absence of a mayday call meant something happened very quickly. Eye on the NewsDeepa Shrestha, Reuters368 photos An ambulance drives past burning tires during a general strike Monday in Kathmandu. Angry protesters stoned vehicles and shut down shops and schools in the Nepali capital.(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker) "The conclusion to be drawn is that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this airplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion," Jane's Aviation analyst Chris Yates told The Associated Press. "Potentially it went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilot on board didn't have a chance to make that emergency call." If all 228 people were killed, it would be the deadliest commercial airline disaster since Nov. 12, 2001, when an American Airlines jetliner crashed in the New York City borough of Queens during a flight to the Dominican Republic, killing 265 people. Airbus spokeswoman Maggie Bergsma said it was the first fatal accident of a A330-200 since a test flight in 1994 went wrong, killing seven people in Toulouse. The Airbus A330-200 is a twin-engine, long-haul, medium-capacity passenger jet that can hold up to 253 passengers. There are 341 in use worldwide, flying up to 7,760 miles (12,500 kilometers) a trip. Keller reported from Charles de Gaulle airport in Roissy, France. Associated Press reporters Emma Vandore, Laurent Lemel and Laurent Pirot in Paris; Alan Clendenning and Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo and Marco Sibaja in Brasilia; Slobodan Lekic in Brussels, Belgium; Barry Hatton in Lisbon and Airlines and Transportation Editor Greg Stec in New York also contributed to this report. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. 2009-06-01 06:27:48 Curt Lewis, P.E., CSP CURT LEWIS & ASSOCIATES, LLC