I'm afraid "fortes turbulences" is just blurry terminology like "strong turbulences".
Thanks Interflug and pals. So just more imprecise babble for the mindless drones who read newspapers. O.K, that didn't give us much. How about this: There has to be a PIREP in the system somewhere, right? I mean, AF doesn't keep reports like this to themselves do they? Can you guys who are reading this and desperately want to contribute, search the DUATs or AOPA or FAA or Landings.com AV wx links and see if you can find a AF447 PIREP for the Atlantic on the day it happened?
Then we might have the actual turbulence intensity first reported. Maybe.
Good Night All.
CC
To properly attribute, I found this on the first page of the thread from steamchicken:
For the record, the "speed" story in Le Monde says ONLY that Airbus and BEA are going to issue a bulletin today (4th June) that Airbus crew should maintain thrust - conserver la poussée des réacteurs - during difficult weather conditions - en cas de conditions météorologiques difficiles.
That's the first paragraph. Everything else in the story is Brazilian newspapers quoting each other reporting the same bloody ACARS sequence everyone reported days ago. They also say that Alternate Law is an emergency power supply. Further, they say that the various Brazilian papers involved have really good sources in AF.
Well, I'd be stunned if anyone had better sources in AF or indeed in any other big French seminationalised industry than Le Monde, which is after all a Gaullist postwar national project itself, and like most of them does a damn good job.