Bearfoil
From BEA Interim Report No.1 -
At 1 h 46, the DAKAR controller asked the ATLANTICO controller for further information regarding flight AF447 since he had no flight plan. The ATLANTICO controller provided the following elements: A332, from SBGL to LFPG, SELCAL: CPHQ.
The DAKAR OCEANIC Regional Control Centre created the flight plan and activated it. The result of this was to generate a virtual flight following the planned trajectory in the DAKAR FIR between TASIL and POMAT. There was no radio contact between AF447 and DAKAR, nor any ADS-C connection. The flight remained virtual.
At 2 h 47 min 00 s, the DAKAR controller coordinated flight AF447 by telephone (ATS/DS) with the SAL controller (Cape Verde) with the following information: passing the POMAT point (leaving the DAKAR FIR) estimated at 3 h 45, FL350, Mach 0.82.
At 2 h 48 min 07 s, the DAKAR controller told the SAL controller that flight AF447 had not yet established contact with him.
At 3 h 54 min 30 s, the SAL controller called the DAKAR controller by telephone (ATS/DS) to confirm the estimated time for passing the POMAT point. The latter confirmed that POMAT was estimated at 3 h 45. The DAKAR controller stated that the crew of flight AF447 had not contacted him to correct its estimate. The SAL controller replied that the estimate was probably later. He asked the DAKAR controller if there was any change. The DAKAR controller then said that he was going to try to contact flight AF447.
There is no indication that the ATLANTICO controller attempted to contact AF447 again, and once the virtual flight plan had been created AF447 was left to its own devices.
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