PARIS – Air France-KLM Group, whose Rio de Janeiro-Paris flight disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean yesterday, has not suffered a fatal crash since the Concorde disaster almost nine years ago.
The twin-engine Airbus SAS A330 model involved has never had a fatal crash in a commercial flight.
Air France said the aircraft had encountered an area of strong turbulence during the flight and an automatic message was received indicating a breakdown in the electrical circuitry.
"Modern airliners do not just go missing," said David Learmount, safety editor at Flight Internationalin London.
“They were en route and should have been fine. The question is, what happened after the electrical fault, because a short circuit in itself should not bring down a plane. That would be different if there was a fire, for example.”
The Airbus A330-200 powered by two General Electric CF680E engines, was last serviced on April 16th and had accumulated 18,870 flying hours after entering service in 2005, Air France said. The pilot of the aircraft had accumulated 11,000 hours, including 1,100 on A330s. – (Bloomberg)