Lightning blamed for missing Air France plane from Brazil

June 1, 8:15 PMBaltimore Weather ExaminerTony Pann

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The Air France plane that went missing off of the coast of Brazil may have been lost in bad weather.   It was near the equator along the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).  This a band of large active thunderstorms in the tropics that moves north in the summer and play a role in hurricane season. More on the ITCZ can be found in the slide show below.

The plane "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence," Air France said. About 14 minutes later, at 11:14 p.m. local time, 0214 GMT (10:14 p.m. EDT Sunday), 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.

The 216 passengers included 126 men, 82 women, 7 children and a baby, Air France said. There were 61 French and 58 Brazilians; 30 other countries were represented, including two Americans.

The flight was at normal cruising altitude of 35,000 feet at 520 mph.  Thunderstorms in the region were towering up to 50,000 ft.  Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse said a lightning strike could have damaged the plane.

The region where the plane lost contact was 745 northeast of the city of Natal, where ocean depths can be as much as 15,000.  This is such a large area, that a request was made for US Spy Satellites to assist in finding wreckage.

Planes are designed to be struck by lightning.  Their bodies are mostly aluminum and carry electricity around, but not through the cabin.  This is very similar to the safety we would experience inside a car during a thunderstorm. Some planes have been destroyed in thunderstorms.  The most deadly was a Pan American flight in 1963 that killed 83 people.

In the early 1980s, NASA conducted an experiment by flying a jet into a thunderstorm.  It was hit 72 times in 45 minutes, and was invaluable in understanding further safety development.