ROSAT image of South Atlantic Anomaly. Air France 447 flight path circled in black
The Bermuda Triangle and missing aircraft may seem like science fiction, but there is a well documented region off of the coast of Brazil that contains highly charged particles. This area is known as the South Atlantic Anomaly and is avoided at all costs by orbiting satellites. NASA satellites that do travel in the region are shut down, or go into SAFE mode to avoid damage while passing over the Atlantic between Brazil and Africa.
The electrical field around earth protects us from cosmic rays. There are two bands that trap highly charged particles circle the earth. The protons trapped near the surface is in this region called the Van Allen Belt. This radiation can cause all sorts of malfunctions in spacecraft electronics. In fact, the Geiger counter used to measure cosmic rays on Explorer 1 in 1958 stopped functioning because it was overloaded by radiation!
So what is the connection to Air France flight 447? This is where the highly technical science could put some to sleep. While this flight path is used by commercial pilots without incidence daily, there is the possibility that one of these tropical thunderstorms tapped into the electric field nearby. The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone is know for some of the most violent thunderstorms on the planet. With cloud tops over 50,000 feet and violent updrafts of 100 mph, there was a tremendous amount of electricity generated. My friend, a commercial pilot, tells me that lightning can be constant in these storms. So I pose this question for the flight experts and astrophysicists: Could flight 447 have been affected by a rare sequence of events including a direct lightning strike, extreme proton charge from the South Atlantic Anomaly, and then left defenseless as the storm and G-Forces in the violent up and downdrafts tore the fuselage apart?
For more click the links or see the slide show below:
Lightning blamed for missing Air France Flight 447
Initial search for Air France Flight 447
An article by Rich Battros from 2005 in redicecreations.com asked the question about whether airlines have been notified? He cites the following incidents as a result of the Van Allen Belts: United Airlines reported high frequency (HF) communications losses and solar radiation storms which caused planes to be diverted to less dangerous routes. Rerouting and general delays are costly to the airlines. One example of that was a storm that caused a flight to be diverted from a polar route, requiring additional fuel at Tokyo and extending the flight by 5 hrs 30 min. During another period, 25 flights were flown on less than optimal polar routes due to HF communications problems. Northwest Airlines diverted a Detroit - Beijing flight to a non-polar route due to both HF communications problems (radio blackout) and a solar radiation storm, forcing an unscheduled stop at Fairbanks for fuel. This route change resulted in an approximately 3 hour delay and $100,000 cost to NWA, plus the inconvenience and loss attendants upon disrupting the travel of passengers. The Director of Flight Operations of Continental Airlines reported that they diverted their daily flight for the second day in succession based on the S3 level of solar radiation storm. The direct impact was 2 hours of extra flight time and additional associated costs.
Comments
An explosion in mid-air doesn't necessarily ignite the fuel. If a small explosion occurs in the tail section, for instance, it will damage the airframe without igniting all the fuel on board (and maybe not even the fuel stored in the trim tanks). Such explosion will:
- generate loss of cabin pressure
- affect the controls (rudder, elevator) to the point where, given the weather conditions, an aerodinamyc stall occurs, resulting in a rapid loss of altitude and possibly airframe failure due to the high G forces
Possible causes of explosion:
- explosive device
- APU generator failure
Now, about the FDRs and CVRs: they should design them in a way permitting them to stay afloat. Any ideas? Anyone?
Val, there is a company already that designs FDR's and CVR's that depart the airplane upon massive acceleration and / or impact and also are design to float. saw it on CNN after the tragedy of AF447.
Truly awesome read..! However i read that planes can take direct hits by lighting. Im confused in the sense that this plane is suppose to be equip with the most sophisticated instruments however their radar failed them and had no backup. Also if this lightning was so vivid, with radar out and a massive storm ahead of you- wouldn't you turn around? Remember it was night time so the lightning must have be surreal.
This is the same plane that had bomb threats prior to takeoff btw! I don't think we'll ever know exactly what happened.
Hi - This is a fascinating article . Perhaps it was never struck by lightening at all, but simply fell into the ocean due to a massive power failure. This may explain why there was an oil streak in the water.
Well the debris they found turned out not to be from the missing plane, so there is no evidence whatsoever that this plane crashed in the atlantic. For all we know, it's ... somewhere. Sorry for the creepy "..."'s
I'm starting to think Lost is not a drama but a reality show, and that the island has some brand new inhabitants...
Hmmm - O.K., here's another large piece of speculation. Something like 30,000 meteorites hit the Earths Atmosphere every hour - right? - and a reputed 500 make it through to the Earths surface. What are the chances of a high-flying airplane such as Flight 447, being struck by a meteorite - even a small one? A small meteorite, even around big marble size, would cause substantial damage to an aircraft travelling at over 500mph. It could set in train, a series of damaging events that would lead to loss of control, then loss of the aircraft. As we saw in the Gol Boeing crash, even a small contact area with a winglet from another plane was enough to cause loss of the Boeing. The chances of being hit by a meteorite must increase as you go higher - and yes, the chances are probably 100 million to 1 - but, the law of averages states that sooner or later, that 100 million to 1 meteorite strike chance, WILL happen.
To Masco: Flight 447 wasn't the same plane with the bomb threat. That plane took off safley out of Beunos Aries to Paris after a thorough check for bombs. But, it still makes me nervous to think that a plane can fall out of the sky when the most dangerous times of flying are a few minutes after take-off and landing. Also, pilots know when they are headed for severe storms and manage to move around them, how did this pilot not realize he was flying right into the storms mouth? I have never been a frightened flier....now, it scares the ----- out of me.
Finally someone with a scientific theory, with scientific facts.
This article is very interesting, it gives some food for thought.
"avoided at all costs by orbiting satellites"?? Almost every satellite in low earth orbit passes through the SAA 4-6 times EVERY DAY, usually without any problems. They have no choice - They're in ORBIT. They don't shut them down or put them into safe mode (intentionally) first. Yes, occassionally a bit will flip in a computer or a spacecraft will 'safe' itself due to radiation in this region. Yes it is more likely to happen in this region. But you have grossly mischaracterized what happens in the SAA. You should talk to an expert or two next time before you publish this stuff.
I believe that fierce lightning damaged the plane's radar and other sensitive equipment and the plane went on a blind path hopping to get out of the storm. Unfortunatelly it seems it got in the core of the storm and obviously it was wrecked.
THis is amazing. Across the world over 90% of internet and radio opinion dismiss the 'official' explanation of events, (That is each unique and ever changing explanation from three different countries. Has anyone ever seen such an appalling and obvious cover-up failure?
This article is pure balderdash. Thousands of flights cross that anomaly daily, as do thousands of satellites, ships, and everything else. Brazil would be stranded from modern technology if this were true, which it is obviously not. Too many assumptions with too little proof. Talk to real experts, not random pilots about what is going on. The crash of the plane probably was not even due to lightning, but rather a mechanical failure in the pitot tubes. Next time really look at what's going on before writing assumptions as facts.
I read 'rare' chance that a combination of the electrical storm in that location tapped into the SAA. It is possible not balderdash. There are a lot of unexplained phenomena that may have a legitimate scientific explanation if you open your eyes. We are too fixed on what we can see that it may render many of us blind in thought.
If it were true the authorities would never admit it for commercial reasons
We will find out what actually happened, even if the flight data recorder is not found. My own belief is that the plane's communications and flight instruments were knocked out in the anomaly zone, but that alone would not bring down the aircraft. It was the inability of the pilots to navigate their way out of a severe electrical storm at night - without any data. This zone is known for both electromagnetic chaos and severe lightening storms... it was just a matter of time before something like this would happen.
Tony,
I am so happy you wrote this article. Last night I watched a program on Discovery Channel detailing this very thing, and immediately I wondered if the increased solar radiation could have anything to do with the plane going down. The program mentioned the Hubble telescope going through this area and frequently having to turn off its equipment or having the sun turn if off for them.
So the senario is this - the plane is in a bad storm with no visibility, solar radiation/cosmic rays block all communication and flight controls and the plane dives into atlantic with high altitude and high speed. This is why the plane apparently went "missing" - no one knew what happened to it.
The program name is "Inside Planet Earth".
After I saw the program I wanted to call the news station and say, see, this is what happened!
Look up: Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Viewing and Schedulability
The South Atlantic Anomaly, a lower extension of the Van Allen radiation belts, lies above South America and the South Atlantic Ocean. No astronomical or calibration observations are possible during passage of the spacecraft through the SAA because of the high background induced in the science instruments and FGSs. As the HST orbit precesses and the earth rotates during the day, the southern part of the HST orbit intersects the SAA for 7 to 9 orbits in a row (so-called "SAA-impacted" orbits). These SAA-impacted orbits are followed by 5 to 6 orbits (8 to 10 hours) without SAA intersections. During intersections, HST observing activities must be halted for approximately 20 to 25 minutes. This effectively limits the longest possible uninterrupted observations, even in the CVZ, to 5 orbits. Note that the STIS MAMAs and the ACS SBC cannot be used during any part of an orbit that is even partially impacted by the SAA.
Since comments at this location cannot include links or URLs, Google 'Starfish Prime' (a 1962 high-altitude nuclear test involving a thermonuclear warhead), go to the Wikipedia entry and see 'Aftereffects'.
Some 50 bodies have been recovered. All appear to have multiple bone fractures (hip, legs, arms). Moreover, the bodies were not strapped in seats. Coupled with large pieces of the plane found including the tail, experts suggest the plane broke up in the sky. It might have found itself in a flat spin after losing its entire electrical and communications systems.
There has been no reported evidence of burn marks on bodes or debris. This suggests that there was no bomb or explosion as some speculated. Some speculated the targets were two high ranking anti-drug investigators from South America.
There is an extremely rare but very powerful form of lightening that strikes from below that Duke University researches have discovered. Could that have been the cause of the electrical failure given the severe weather environment that night?
Also we can’t rule out the South Atlantic Anomaly, where it has been discovered that the Earth’s magnetic field has collapsed, potentially exposing a
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