Originally Posted by
Feathers McGraw
Pyro
Air France's statement says it was a lightning strike, you would expect them to know wouldn't you?
The Air France statement about a lightning strike was at best speculation only. Poorly formulated and very misleading speculation.
The facts are that the aircraft's automatic ACARS (Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System) simply sent out a random message giving some basic information on the status of some of the systems on board. It does this automatically.
Supposedly the electrical system and pressurization systems were suspect due to the ACARS message received. The fact that some "spokesman" is saying it was lightning based on this tiny shred of information leads me to discount any information given thus far.
Until we get more definitive information, that ACARS message could mean almost anything.