I am amazed its not found yet. I thought we lived in an age where sats could read number plates. There could be survivors with the wreckage. If OBL was on the plane they would have found it by now.

Wreckage found
 

Reuters are reporting that the wreckage has been found but there are no other details.

The wreckage is in the mangroves near the airport of Douala.

Just in:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6630953.stm

This should keep the conspiracy theorists busy for the day.
 

From AP today:

Among the passengers of the Boeing 737-800 was a Nairobi-based Associated Press correspondent, Anthony Mitchell, one of five Britons on a passenger list released by the airline. Mitchell had been on assignment in the region.



From the Committee to Protect Journalists website (2006)

New York, January 23, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged at the Ethiopian government's weekend expulsion of The Associated Press correspondent in the country. Anthony Mitchell, who reported news on Friday of renewed clashes between police and protesters in the capital, Addis Ababa, left on Sunday after government officials gave him 24 hours to depart.

"Anthony Mitchell is a respected and experienced reporter, and he should not be expelled for doing his job," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. "The Ethiopian government, which has imprisoned 16 journalists since November, is demonstrating yet again that it is bent on silencing independent reporting.

Links to both stories, for more detail.

Remember, the CPJ article is over a year old.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070506/...on_plane_crash

http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/...23jan06na.html

Lightning?
 

Everything is a speculation at this early stage and PPRUNE being just a rumour network, since “aircraft was airborne, according to some reports, for 11 minutes and crash site, according to the latest news, is only 6 miles away” is it possible that a “massive lightning strike” blew all lights, radios and EFIS out and the crew was trying to come back to land in total darkness, no radio or Nav and IMC?
Could have a lightning strike affected ELT too?

Where do these 6 NM come from now? BBC sais 12 SM south, which would place the aircraft not under the SID direction Yaounde but rather under the DME Arc for the arrival. IF the 12 SM and the direction South were correct, I do wonder if they for some reason were on the DME arc used in the arrival procedure when what happened did happen?

Edit, YAHOO (link above) claims 12 Miles southeast, along the flight path...

Also, is it confirmed that the last contact was the hand off call? That one would occurr around FL60, and it should take longer than 12 Miles to get that high?

You are obviously AN2 driver. As far as any modern jet is concerned, it climbs at 2000 f/m and it should reach FL60 as you said (normally 50 in Douala when you contact Control) in 3 or so minutes. With 737 climb speed that would have happened around 12 NM?

LOL, ok, you got me there :) Used to be on Jets years and years ago but my math seems off at this time of the day :hmm:

So the last call would then have just about occurred at the distance where they did find the plane now?

Is the location of the crash site now confirmed?

Should we perhaps start an award for the most inane drivel made in one post.

Perhaps this forum should be renamed "Inane drivel and such".

There seems to be an never-ending supply of people who are determined to make themselves look like idiots, but apparently love to see their name in print.

The Professional contributors are sadly seriously outnumbered.

Oh it's painful isn't it? Daft idiotic imaginations and speculation running riot, people talking about themselves and how hard their ATPL training is....this thread has really brought them all out of the woodwork! All human life is here. I really think the site needs some hard pruning. People contributing inane drivel to this thread should bear in mind some things first. In any air accident, until details come out, don't speculate! It's amazing how the accident may actually caused by something completely different. And accidents are usually caused by a combination of factors, not just single things in isolation.

So please can we pack up with the inane speculation and guesses at this stage, and wait for details to come out? 5 pages of nothing but pleas to God and wishing for a happy outcome with survivors. Many find this offensive- we are waiting for news, not for people to beat their breasts in public about how upset they are!

You have to admit though, its now stunningly similar - on the face of it - to the KQ A310 accident in January 2000, in terms of phase of flight, time, distance from airport, lack of external visual references, etc. etc.

Wreckage 20km south-east of the airport according to http://in.today.reuters.com/news/new...a-296951-4.xml

How does the wreckage location correlate with radar coverage from ATC?

Perhaps I missed reading it, but does anyone know which runway was used for departure? Thanks.

There is no radar in Douala.

Would anyone who operates into and out of Douala be able to let us know whether RW30 is the preferential runway, what the normal routing is from Douala to Nairobi, assuming it is via the NLY and the UA610, is there an SID? and if so could you describe it for us.
Thanks in advance.
CC

about drivel...


how many of you remember at least one crash was caused in a large jet plane by a lightning strike? i do.

while I don't think that is the case here, lightning could momentarily blind both pilots...check the USA AIM, it reminds you to turn up all the cockpit lights full bright to protect you. remember this crash was at night.

I can't really stand it when theories are dismissed as drivel.

I know of one EFIS type plane that lost EVERYTHING at night over water...the pilots did land safely.

does that mean it could never happen? just ask murphy about that!

Drivel might cut the mustard on CNN, but around here it shouldn't.

But keep on speculating Jon.