From Times Online June 26, 2009
Los Angeles police are searching for Michael Jackson's personal physician today to question him after allegations that the star received a potentially fatal dose of the painkiller Demerol before his death.
News of the manhunt broke on the well-connected celebrity gossip website TMZ.com, which was the first to report the star's death, and came as an LA County coroner began an autopsy.
Earlier reports suggested that Jackson might have been given a large dose of the drug to help deal with pain after rehearsals for a series of 50 comeback concerts in London.
Los Angeles police spokeswoman Karen Rayner says that police had towed a BMW owned by one of the singer's doctors from Jackson’s house.
She said: “We have not been able to interview the doctor yet. His car was impounded because it may contain medications or other evidence that may assist the coroner in determining the cause of death.”
Ms Rayner added that the doctor was not under criminal investigation but coroner’s investigators wanted to contact him.
Jackson, 50, collapsed at his rented mansion in the Holmby Hills area of the city yesterday afternoon. Paramedics were called to the house at 12.21pm local time to respond to a "50-year-old male" who was "not breathing at all".
He was rushed to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, but doctors were unable to revive him and his death was confirmed at 2.26pm (10.26pm UK time).
Family members told TMZ that Jackson had received his daily shot of Demerol at 11.30am, but the dosage was "too much".
As thousands of shocked fans gathered outside the UCLA hospital, detectives from the LAPD's Robbery Homicide division conducted an initial search of his house at the behest of city police chief William Bratton before sealing it off as a crime scene.
Jackson's death had been confirmed by his brother Jermaine, who told reporters and TV crews at the hospital: "We believe he suffered a cardiac arrest at his home, however the cause of his death is unknown until the results of the autopsy are known."
He added: "The personal physician who was with him at the time attempted to resuscitate him."
The star's death shocked the world of music and entertainment and left millions of fans around the world shattered. Elizabeth Taylor, a close friend, was said to be "devastated" while the singer Madonna said: "I can't stop crying over the sad news."
By any reckoning, Jackson was the King of Pop, a former child star with the Jackson Five who went on to create the world's bestselling album with his 1982 release Thriller, which sold up to 57 million copies.
Among those paying tributes was Jackson's ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley, whose father Elvis Presley met a drug-induced death in 1977 at the age of 42. Ms Presley said that she was "sad and confused with every emotion possible" and "heartbroken" for the singer's three children.
Sir Paul McCartney described Jackson as a "massively talented boy-man with a gentle soul", while the British TV journalist Martin Bashir said the world had "lost the greatest entertainer it’s probably ever known".
Bashir's 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson was a PR disaster for the singer, who ended up facing child molestation charges after telling the reporter that sharing his bed with a boy was "a beautiful thing". Jackson was eventually acquitted in 2005 and Bashir said today that while his lifestyle had been unorthodox, "I don't believe it was criminal".
Last night Jackson's body was flown by helicopter to the coroner's office, where the autopsy began this morning, conducted by Dr Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, who was the medical examiner during the OJ Simpson murder case and testified more recently in the trial of Phil Spector.
But officials warned that a final verdict would not be possible until toxicology test results are confirmed, which could take six to eight weeks.
On Wednesday night, Jackson had attended a rehearsal at LA's Staples Center arena - home to the LA Lakers basketball team - to prepare for his comeback dates at the O2.
Jackson was said to have missed all but two or three of 45 rehearsals for the show but Patrick Woodroffe, a lighting engineer working at the LA arena, said that he had finally recovered some of his old magic in the past few days.
He told the BBC: "He came on stage at 9 o’clock in the evening and we all looked at each other and there was something that said that he really had it.
"Last night particularly, he came on stage and he was electric. It was like he had been holding back and suddenly he was performing as one had remembered him in the past."
Brian Oxman, a Jackson family lawyer and spokesman, told CNN that Jackson had been struggling to cope with the after-effects of various performance injuries, including a damaged vertebra and a broken leg, which had been interrupting scheduled rehearsal for the London dates.
He went on to accuse those around Jackson of letting him slip into dependency on prescription drugs and painkillers.
"I can only tell you that this is not something which has been unexpected," Mr Oxman told CNN from the LA hospital as family members came to terms with the news from doctors.
"This family has been trying for months and months to take care of Michael Jackson. The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him: if you think that the case of Anna Nicole Smith was an abuse, it is nothing to what we have seen taking place in Michael Jackson's life."
He added: "I can tell you for sure that this is something I warned about. Where there is smoke there is fire."
Jackson’s reputation as a singer and moonwalking dancer was overshadowed in recent years by his increasingly abnormal appearance, and bizarre lifestyle, which included his friendship with a chimpanzee named Bubbles and a preference for the company of children.
He named his estate in the central California foothills Neverland Valley Ranch, in tribute to the J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan stories, and filled it with amusement park rides and a petting zoo.
Jackson was twice accused of molesting young boys and was charged in 2003 with child sexual abuse. He became even more reclusive following his 2005 acquittal and vowed that he would no longer live at Neverland.
Facing a battered reputation and mountain of debts that authoritative estimates put at up to half a billion dollars, Jackson had been forced to agree to the unprecedented residency at the O2.
Despite reports of Jackson’s ill-health, the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Shocking Bridge
Culture shock is leaving Lombard Street in San Francisco on the Golden Gate Bus and arriving in Corte Madera in Marin County where people tell you things instead of asking questions.
If you are knitting something, before you arrive at the Golden Gate bridge, there might be a question from the passenger in the seat next to you such as "What is it?"
Once you arrive in Marin County, someone will probably say, "Oh, it's pretty, I like it!" Or someone might say "I'm from here", if they say anything at all.
If you continue on the bus to San Rafael from Larkspur or Corte Madera, there is mostly silence.
It is enlightening when someone tells me something instead of asking questions. Most often, while travelling, one can anticipate the questions of other passengers.
Perhaps the reason people in San Francisco ask questions and in Marin County people tell you things is because of the bridge from one culture to another.
If you are knitting something, before you arrive at the Golden Gate bridge, there might be a question from the passenger in the seat next to you such as "What is it?"
Once you arrive in Marin County, someone will probably say, "Oh, it's pretty, I like it!" Or someone might say "I'm from here", if they say anything at all.
If you continue on the bus to San Rafael from Larkspur or Corte Madera, there is mostly silence.
It is enlightening when someone tells me something instead of asking questions. Most often, while travelling, one can anticipate the questions of other passengers.
Perhaps the reason people in San Francisco ask questions and in Marin County people tell you things is because of the bridge from one culture to another.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Five Ways to Improve the Environment
FIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE THE ENVIRONMENT
1. Recharge your batteries
Batteries contain mercury and cadmium, major sources of hazardous contamination.
Use rechargeable batteries, recycle alkaline batteries.
2. Stamp out Styrofoam
Styrofoam is polystyrene foam made from the carcinogen benzene converted to styrene and then injected with gases.
Polystyrene form is non-biodegradable and is deadly to marine life. It floats on ocean surfaces, breaks up into pellets resembling food, styrofoam clogs the systems of turtles and other sealife, and its buoyancy keeps them from diving for food.
Avoid foam packaging in egg cartons, disposable picnic goods, etc. Ask for paper take-out plate at restaurants.
3. Recycle your motor oil
Used motor oil can contaminate drinking water supplies and create a poisonous oil stick. One quart of motor oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water.
You can avoid this by checking at gas station to be sure it will be recycled, inquire if there is an oil-changing outlet that recycles their oil for a small fee.
Most recycled oil is reprocessed for ships and industrial boilers. Millions of barrels of oil can be saved by refining motor oil.
4. Avoid incandescent light bulbs
Compact fluorescents last longer and use about 1/4 of the energy of an incandescent bulb. Substituting a compact fluorescent light for a traditional bulb will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb.
5. Hazardous toxins
Billions of dollars are spent every year on hazardous toxins. Oven cleaners, no-iron bed linens, air fresheners, mothballs, permanent ink pens, and baby powder may contain dangerous toxins.
Use baking soda instead of oven cleaner, herbal mixtures or vinegar with lemon juice and orange zest instead of air freshener, cedar chips instead of mothballs. Air fresheners may contain harmful chemicals like xylene, ethanol or naphthalene. Mothballs contain paradichlorobenzene.
1. Recharge your batteries
Batteries contain mercury and cadmium, major sources of hazardous contamination.
Use rechargeable batteries, recycle alkaline batteries.
2. Stamp out Styrofoam
Styrofoam is polystyrene foam made from the carcinogen benzene converted to styrene and then injected with gases.
Polystyrene form is non-biodegradable and is deadly to marine life. It floats on ocean surfaces, breaks up into pellets resembling food, styrofoam clogs the systems of turtles and other sealife, and its buoyancy keeps them from diving for food.
Avoid foam packaging in egg cartons, disposable picnic goods, etc. Ask for paper take-out plate at restaurants.
3. Recycle your motor oil
Used motor oil can contaminate drinking water supplies and create a poisonous oil stick. One quart of motor oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of drinking water.
You can avoid this by checking at gas station to be sure it will be recycled, inquire if there is an oil-changing outlet that recycles their oil for a small fee.
Most recycled oil is reprocessed for ships and industrial boilers. Millions of barrels of oil can be saved by refining motor oil.
4. Avoid incandescent light bulbs
Compact fluorescents last longer and use about 1/4 of the energy of an incandescent bulb. Substituting a compact fluorescent light for a traditional bulb will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb.
5. Hazardous toxins
Billions of dollars are spent every year on hazardous toxins. Oven cleaners, no-iron bed linens, air fresheners, mothballs, permanent ink pens, and baby powder may contain dangerous toxins.
Use baking soda instead of oven cleaner, herbal mixtures or vinegar with lemon juice and orange zest instead of air freshener, cedar chips instead of mothballs. Air fresheners may contain harmful chemicals like xylene, ethanol or naphthalene. Mothballs contain paradichlorobenzene.
Friday, June 12, 2009
The Horse Race
The galloping horses stopped in their tracks.
What they saw, I really don't know.
Their eyes were wild, they dropped their packs,
And they put on quite a show.
People of all sorts stood three in a line
To see the herd kick up dust.
I watched from a stairway sign nearby
That said "We Plan to Win or Bust".
It seems the horses once ran a race,
But betting was not now allowed.
And habits slumber at a slow pace,
So some lost esteem they borrowed.
More horses appeared from hills here and there
To form a camp and decide.
Their goal was to protest and share
Opinions about where to abide.
Because rumors shot over their heads about storms,
They sought to find places to stay,
And frightened the neighbors who set their alarms
And managed to stay away.
They locked their doors and hid in places
Until the herds of horses got tired,
And somehow disappeared and quit the races.
They suddenly all retired.
What they saw, I really don't know.
Their eyes were wild, they dropped their packs,
And they put on quite a show.
People of all sorts stood three in a line
To see the herd kick up dust.
I watched from a stairway sign nearby
That said "We Plan to Win or Bust".
It seems the horses once ran a race,
But betting was not now allowed.
And habits slumber at a slow pace,
So some lost esteem they borrowed.
More horses appeared from hills here and there
To form a camp and decide.
Their goal was to protest and share
Opinions about where to abide.
Because rumors shot over their heads about storms,
They sought to find places to stay,
And frightened the neighbors who set their alarms
And managed to stay away.
They locked their doors and hid in places
Until the herds of horses got tired,
And somehow disappeared and quit the races.
They suddenly all retired.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
City and County of San Francisco Says Church Trying to Skip Taxes
According to San Francisco's tax assessor, the Archdiocese of San Francisco has moved the ownership of various assets to a new nonprofit organization in order to shield the properties from being seized or sold for potential lawsuit payouts.
The church has refused to pay the taxes for transferring the 232 properties, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting said. The tax bill, which the church has appealed, could reach $15 million - one of the largest in city history.
Nonprofits are exempt from property and federal income taxes but subject to property transfer taxes, which are collected if they sell or transfer properties.
At issue is whether the church is moving those San Francisco properties from one Catholic nonprofit organization to another, was transferring the assets to a separate entity, as the city argues, or simply undergoing internal reorganization, as the church contends.
The properties in question include some of the diocese's most famous, such as Mission Dolores, Old St. Mary's Cathedral, and St. Francis of Assisi, as well as empty lots and commercial land throughout the city.
At the upcoming hearing, Ting plans to argue that the church moved 232 properties into a new nonprofit created expressly to protect the archdiocese from losing those assets,
The diocese has sold other peoperties in recent years to help pay out more than $40 million in settlements related to dozens of sexual abuse lawsuits, but church official strongly rejected Ting's accusation.
Ting compared the practice to a private business creating a limited liability company or corporation in order to protect owners from bankruptcy or other legal judments. He said the move is completely legal but that the church cannot have the asset protection and also escape the tax bill. The case could have wide-ranging implications for other churches and nonprofits who decide to reorganize their holdings. Tuing said he has received calls from other religious organizations "who are thinking about doing similar things and are looking eith quite a lot of interest at what happens in this case."
A city appeals board - made up of the city controller, treasurer and head of the real estate division - will hold the hearing on June 16 to determine whether the church owes the taxes. If his office is successful, Ting estimates the arachdiocese could owe between $3 million and $15 million in taxes.
___________________________
The above was based on article by Marisa Lagos,
Chronicle Staff Writer
The church has refused to pay the taxes for transferring the 232 properties, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting said. The tax bill, which the church has appealed, could reach $15 million - one of the largest in city history.
Nonprofits are exempt from property and federal income taxes but subject to property transfer taxes, which are collected if they sell or transfer properties.
At issue is whether the church is moving those San Francisco properties from one Catholic nonprofit organization to another, was transferring the assets to a separate entity, as the city argues, or simply undergoing internal reorganization, as the church contends.
The properties in question include some of the diocese's most famous, such as Mission Dolores, Old St. Mary's Cathedral, and St. Francis of Assisi, as well as empty lots and commercial land throughout the city.
At the upcoming hearing, Ting plans to argue that the church moved 232 properties into a new nonprofit created expressly to protect the archdiocese from losing those assets,
The diocese has sold other peoperties in recent years to help pay out more than $40 million in settlements related to dozens of sexual abuse lawsuits, but church official strongly rejected Ting's accusation.
Ting compared the practice to a private business creating a limited liability company or corporation in order to protect owners from bankruptcy or other legal judments. He said the move is completely legal but that the church cannot have the asset protection and also escape the tax bill. The case could have wide-ranging implications for other churches and nonprofits who decide to reorganize their holdings. Tuing said he has received calls from other religious organizations "who are thinking about doing similar things and are looking eith quite a lot of interest at what happens in this case."
A city appeals board - made up of the city controller, treasurer and head of the real estate division - will hold the hearing on June 16 to determine whether the church owes the taxes. If his office is successful, Ting estimates the arachdiocese could owe between $3 million and $15 million in taxes.
___________________________
The above was based on article by Marisa Lagos,
Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Prayer of Franklin D. Roosevelt on D Day, June 6, 1944
This is the prayer originally entitled "Let Our Hearts Be Stout" written by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as Allied troops were invading German-occupied Europe during World War II. The prayer was read to the nation on radio on the evening of D-Day, June 6, 1944, while American, British and Canadian troops were fighting to establish beach heads on the coast of Normandy in France.
The previous night, June 5, the President had also been on the radio to announce that Allied troops had entered Rome. The spectacular news that Rome had been liberated was quickly surpassed by news of the gigantic D-Day invasion which began at 6:30 a.m. on June 6. By midnight about 57,000 American and 75,000 British and Canadian soldiers had gotten ashore. Allied losses on D-Day included 2,500 killed and 8,500 wounded.
My Fellow Americans:
Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.
Franklin D. Roosevelt - June 6, 1944
The previous night, June 5, the President had also been on the radio to announce that Allied troops had entered Rome. The spectacular news that Rome had been liberated was quickly surpassed by news of the gigantic D-Day invasion which began at 6:30 a.m. on June 6. By midnight about 57,000 American and 75,000 British and Canadian soldiers had gotten ashore. Allied losses on D-Day included 2,500 killed and 8,500 wounded.
My Fellow Americans:
Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.
Franklin D. Roosevelt - June 6, 1944
Monday, June 1, 2009
Air France Jet Feared Lost on Flight From Brazil to Paris
PARIS — An Air France passenger jet traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappeared after its electrical systems malfunctioned during a thunderstorm with heavy turbulence on Sunday evening, and officials said Monday that a search had begun for the wreckage in a vast swath of the Atlantic Ocean.
Relatives and friends waited on Monday at Galeão - Antonio Carlos Jobim airport in Rio de Janeiro to receive information about flight AF 447.
“We have received no news from Flight AF 447,” an Air France spokeswoman in Paris, Brigitte Barrand, said Monday.
The plane, an Airbus 330-200, was carrying 216 passengers, nine cabin crew members and three pilots, the airline said.
It took off from Galeão Airport in Rio de Janeiro at 7:30 p.m. local time (6:30 Eastern time), and its last verbal communication with air traffic control was at 10:33 p.m., according to a statement from the Aeronautica, the agency in charge of Brazilian air space. At that time, the flight was at 35,000 feet and traveling 520 miles per hour.
About a half-hour later, the plane encountered an electrical storm with “very heavy turbulence,” Ms. Barrand said. The last communication from the plane was 14 minutes later — a series of automatic messages indicating that the aircraft had suffered an electrical-system malfunction, Air France officials said in Paris.
The chief Air France spokesman, Francois Brousse, said “it is possible” that the plane was hit by lightning, The Associated Press reported.
“A completely unexpected situation occurred on board the aircraft,” Pierre Henri Gourgeon, the Air France-KLM chief executive, told France’s LCI television.
Brazilian officials said the plane disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean between the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, 186 miles northeast of the coastal Brazilian city of Natal, and Ilha do Sal, one of the Cape Verde islands off the coast of Africa. It is a huge area of ocean three times the size of Europe, officials said.
The Brazilian Air Force sent two planes to search for wreckage, an air force spokesman, Col. Henry Munhoz, told O Globo television in Brazil, and three ships from the Brazilian Navy were sent out. A French Air Force plane joined the search from a base in Senegal, Africa, as did a Spanish plane, news services reported.
The head of investigation and accident prevention for Brazil’s Civil Aeronautics Agency, Douglas Ferreira Machado, told O Globo that he calculated that, given its speed, the plane must have left Brazilian waters by the time contact was lost.
“It’s going to take a long time to carry out this search,” The A.P. quoted him as saying. “It could be a long, sad story. The black box will be at the bottom of the sea.”
The incident took place in a zone known to sailors and pilots as the ‘horse latitudes’ — an area of inter-tropical convergence close to the Equator particularly susceptible to storms and violent wind changes, said Julien Gourguechon, who has been an Air France pilot for a decade.
In the area, thunderstorms are possible at altitudes of up to 55,000 feet. Weather reports from the time of the incident indicated high clouds and isolated thunderstorms, CNN reported.
The plane was flying beyond the reach of Brazilian and Senegalese radar when it went missing — a gap that always occurs for aircraft on long trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific flights.
The automatic messages, which were possibly triggered by a number of alarms on the aircraft, were therefore likely received by satellite by the Air France maintenance system, Mr. Gourguechon said. He added that the cause of the plane’s “clearly exceptional” disappearance, apparently with no distress signal, was unlikely to be purely meteorological.
“Lightning alone is not enough to explain the loss of this plane,” he said. “Turbulence alone isn’t enough to explain it. It is always a combination of factors,” he said.
All jets are built to withstand severe turbulence, especially at upper flying levels, as well as to withstand lightning strikes. The missing aircraft was relatively new, having gone into service in April 2005. Its last maintenance check in the hangar took place on April 16, 2009, Air France said in a statement.
Pilots are trained to try to avoid flying directly through thunderstorms, and instead try to find an opening in a storm front through which to guide their plane. Ms. Barrand said that the pilot of the missing jet was very experienced, having clocked 11,000 flying hours, including 1,100 hours on Airbus 330 jets.
Air France's chief executive Pierre Henri Gourgeon spoke to reporters at the airline's headquarters, at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday.
The plane disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean near the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, Brazilian authorities said.
Planes have been brought down by lightning strikes in the past, though it is rare. In 1988, a twin-engine turboprop FA-4 was struck by lightning in the skies over Germany and crashed, killing all 21 people aboard. In 2006, a plane carrying Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, was struck by lightning and had to land, his spokeswoman said at the time.
Flight AF 447 was scheduled to arrive at Paris’s Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport at 11:10 a.m. local time. Stricken relatives, weeping or hiding behind dark sunglasses, descended on terminal 2D at Charles de Gaulle airport where the airline on Monday established a dedicated crisis cell, plus another in Rio. A black robed priest could be seen making his way past hordes of police, passengers and media to comfort relatives at Paris airport.
Air France did not release a passenger list, but said that the passengers were 126 men, 82 women, seven children and an infant. The French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, said that there were about 40 French on board. Maria Celina Rodrigues, the Brazilian consul general in Paris said there were 44 Brazilians on board, along with 21 Germans and a host of others nationalities, including Chinese.
One man at the airport in Paris, Luis Carlos Machado, 40, a policeman from Criciuma, Brazil, was waiting to take an Air France flight to Rio which had been delayed by the disruption. One of his colleagues, Deise Possamai, 34, was on the missing flight. He said he had been indirectly in contact with her parents and said they had given up all hope.
“It’s a really strange feeling to have to fly this route now,” he said.
French and Brazilian aviation authorities are expected to lead the investigation, but the United States National Transportation Safety Board may be involved if the plane had American-made engines or had any American passengers on board.
The A330 jet, which carries about 250 passengers, is a workhorse of long-distance aviation, used on routes where passenger demand was not big enough to warrant the use of the larger Boeing 777.
No Airbus 330-200 passenger flight has ever been involved in a fatal crash, according to the Aviation Safety Network, though the seven-person crew of a test flight died in a June 30, 1994, crash near Toulouse, France, where Airbus is based. The test was meant to simulate an engine failure at low speed with maximum angle of climb.
In October 2008, an A330 operated by Qantas on a flight from Singapore to Perth had to be diverted for an emergency landing near the Australian town of Exmouth after suddenly losing altitude. Dozens of passengers and crew members were injured.
Air France said that people in France seeking information about the flight could telephone 0800-800-812. For those calling from abroad, the number is 33-1-57-02-10-55
__________________
The New York Times
Caroline Brothers reported from Paris, and Sharon Otterman from New York. Reporting was contributed by Alexei Barrionuevo from Buenos Aires, Micheline Maynard from New York, Brian Knowlton from Washington, and Andrew Downie from São Paulo, Brazil.
Relatives and friends waited on Monday at Galeão - Antonio Carlos Jobim airport in Rio de Janeiro to receive information about flight AF 447.
“We have received no news from Flight AF 447,” an Air France spokeswoman in Paris, Brigitte Barrand, said Monday.
The plane, an Airbus 330-200, was carrying 216 passengers, nine cabin crew members and three pilots, the airline said.
It took off from Galeão Airport in Rio de Janeiro at 7:30 p.m. local time (6:30 Eastern time), and its last verbal communication with air traffic control was at 10:33 p.m., according to a statement from the Aeronautica, the agency in charge of Brazilian air space. At that time, the flight was at 35,000 feet and traveling 520 miles per hour.
About a half-hour later, the plane encountered an electrical storm with “very heavy turbulence,” Ms. Barrand said. The last communication from the plane was 14 minutes later — a series of automatic messages indicating that the aircraft had suffered an electrical-system malfunction, Air France officials said in Paris.
The chief Air France spokesman, Francois Brousse, said “it is possible” that the plane was hit by lightning, The Associated Press reported.
“A completely unexpected situation occurred on board the aircraft,” Pierre Henri Gourgeon, the Air France-KLM chief executive, told France’s LCI television.
Brazilian officials said the plane disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean between the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, 186 miles northeast of the coastal Brazilian city of Natal, and Ilha do Sal, one of the Cape Verde islands off the coast of Africa. It is a huge area of ocean three times the size of Europe, officials said.
The Brazilian Air Force sent two planes to search for wreckage, an air force spokesman, Col. Henry Munhoz, told O Globo television in Brazil, and three ships from the Brazilian Navy were sent out. A French Air Force plane joined the search from a base in Senegal, Africa, as did a Spanish plane, news services reported.
The head of investigation and accident prevention for Brazil’s Civil Aeronautics Agency, Douglas Ferreira Machado, told O Globo that he calculated that, given its speed, the plane must have left Brazilian waters by the time contact was lost.
“It’s going to take a long time to carry out this search,” The A.P. quoted him as saying. “It could be a long, sad story. The black box will be at the bottom of the sea.”
The incident took place in a zone known to sailors and pilots as the ‘horse latitudes’ — an area of inter-tropical convergence close to the Equator particularly susceptible to storms and violent wind changes, said Julien Gourguechon, who has been an Air France pilot for a decade.
In the area, thunderstorms are possible at altitudes of up to 55,000 feet. Weather reports from the time of the incident indicated high clouds and isolated thunderstorms, CNN reported.
The plane was flying beyond the reach of Brazilian and Senegalese radar when it went missing — a gap that always occurs for aircraft on long trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific flights.
The automatic messages, which were possibly triggered by a number of alarms on the aircraft, were therefore likely received by satellite by the Air France maintenance system, Mr. Gourguechon said. He added that the cause of the plane’s “clearly exceptional” disappearance, apparently with no distress signal, was unlikely to be purely meteorological.
“Lightning alone is not enough to explain the loss of this plane,” he said. “Turbulence alone isn’t enough to explain it. It is always a combination of factors,” he said.
All jets are built to withstand severe turbulence, especially at upper flying levels, as well as to withstand lightning strikes. The missing aircraft was relatively new, having gone into service in April 2005. Its last maintenance check in the hangar took place on April 16, 2009, Air France said in a statement.
Pilots are trained to try to avoid flying directly through thunderstorms, and instead try to find an opening in a storm front through which to guide their plane. Ms. Barrand said that the pilot of the missing jet was very experienced, having clocked 11,000 flying hours, including 1,100 hours on Airbus 330 jets.
Air France's chief executive Pierre Henri Gourgeon spoke to reporters at the airline's headquarters, at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday.
The plane disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean near the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, Brazilian authorities said.
Planes have been brought down by lightning strikes in the past, though it is rare. In 1988, a twin-engine turboprop FA-4 was struck by lightning in the skies over Germany and crashed, killing all 21 people aboard. In 2006, a plane carrying Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, was struck by lightning and had to land, his spokeswoman said at the time.
Flight AF 447 was scheduled to arrive at Paris’s Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport at 11:10 a.m. local time. Stricken relatives, weeping or hiding behind dark sunglasses, descended on terminal 2D at Charles de Gaulle airport where the airline on Monday established a dedicated crisis cell, plus another in Rio. A black robed priest could be seen making his way past hordes of police, passengers and media to comfort relatives at Paris airport.
Air France did not release a passenger list, but said that the passengers were 126 men, 82 women, seven children and an infant. The French president, Nicholas Sarkozy, said that there were about 40 French on board. Maria Celina Rodrigues, the Brazilian consul general in Paris said there were 44 Brazilians on board, along with 21 Germans and a host of others nationalities, including Chinese.
One man at the airport in Paris, Luis Carlos Machado, 40, a policeman from Criciuma, Brazil, was waiting to take an Air France flight to Rio which had been delayed by the disruption. One of his colleagues, Deise Possamai, 34, was on the missing flight. He said he had been indirectly in contact with her parents and said they had given up all hope.
“It’s a really strange feeling to have to fly this route now,” he said.
French and Brazilian aviation authorities are expected to lead the investigation, but the United States National Transportation Safety Board may be involved if the plane had American-made engines or had any American passengers on board.
The A330 jet, which carries about 250 passengers, is a workhorse of long-distance aviation, used on routes where passenger demand was not big enough to warrant the use of the larger Boeing 777.
No Airbus 330-200 passenger flight has ever been involved in a fatal crash, according to the Aviation Safety Network, though the seven-person crew of a test flight died in a June 30, 1994, crash near Toulouse, France, where Airbus is based. The test was meant to simulate an engine failure at low speed with maximum angle of climb.
In October 2008, an A330 operated by Qantas on a flight from Singapore to Perth had to be diverted for an emergency landing near the Australian town of Exmouth after suddenly losing altitude. Dozens of passengers and crew members were injured.
Air France said that people in France seeking information about the flight could telephone 0800-800-812. For those calling from abroad, the number is 33-1-57-02-10-55
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The New York Times
Caroline Brothers reported from Paris, and Sharon Otterman from New York. Reporting was contributed by Alexei Barrionuevo from Buenos Aires, Micheline Maynard from New York, Brian Knowlton from Washington, and Andrew Downie from São Paulo, Brazil.
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