அஸ்ஸலாமு அலைக்கும்.அன்பு தோழர்கள் அனைவரையும் என்னுடைய இணைய தளத்திற்கு வரவேற்கிறேன்.
Showing posts with label Accidents.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Accidents.. Show all posts

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Air crash survivor back in France

The only known survivor of the Yemenia flight which crashed into the Indian Ocean has arrived back in Paris on a French government plane.

The 12-year-old girl, Baya Bakari, was found clinging to wreckage in the sea, hours after the crash.

She had been treated in hospital in the Comoros Islands for injuries thought to include a broken collar bone and burns.

The plane, going to the Comoros from Yemen's capital, Sanaa, came down in bad weather with 153 people on board.

Baya Bakari was accompanied on the journey back to France by medical staff and France's Minister for Co-operation Alain Joyandet, who had flown to the Comoros after the crash.

On arrival at Bourget airport, she was taken by ambulance to a Paris hospital for further treatment.

"In the midst of the mourning, there is Bahia," Mr Joyandet told a news conference at the airport.

"It is a miracle, it is an absolutely extraordinary battle for survival."

Find out more about the black box

He said France would do everything to help Ms Bakari, who had sent a message to the world that "almost nothing is impossible".

Ms Bakari's father, Kassim Bakari, met her on arrival and said he was "relieved but at the same time sad".

"I am happy I can see my daughter but at the same time, I lost my wife and it's not only my wife I mourn but for all the people who died in the crash," he said.

Doctors in the Comoros Island said Ms Bakari was "regaining her spirit and was in a satisfactory physical state", reported Reuters.

'Timid girl'

Speaking from Paris on Wednesday, Mr Bakari said his daughter had been thrown from the plane as it hit the water.

He said she clearly recalled the chaos of her time in the water, including hearing voices around her in the darkness.

"She's a very timid girl, I never thought she would escape like that," he said, adding that she was "fragile" and barely able to swim.

An uncle who visited the girl in hospital in Moroni told the BBC she did not yet know that her mother had died and had been told she was in another room.

The cause of the crash has not yet been identified but officials believe it is unlikely more survivors will be found.

Attempts are continuing to locate the plane and its black box flight recorders.

On Wednesday, Mr Joyandet said a detected signal thought to be from one of the black boxes was in fact a distress beacon.

Ibrahim Abdourazak, of the Comoros rescue centre, told Reuters it was likely the victims' bodies were still inside the sunken plane.

"In two days we haven't found a body, any large pieces of debris or suitcases floating on the water," he said.

'Speculation'

There were 66 French nationals among the passengers. Most of the rest were Comorans, and most had flown on a different Yemenia aircraft from Paris or Marseille before boarding flight IY626 in Sanaa.

map of comoros islands


See large map and timeline
Ties that bind: Comoros and France
'Miracle' of Comoros crash girl
Are children more likely to survive?

Mr Joyandet said that Comoros and France were working "arm in arm to find out everything that happened".

The EU and France have both said they highlighted safety concerns over Yemenia planes and that the jet that crashed had not flown into EU airspace since 2007.

The French transport ministry said on Tuesday that the Airbus 310 plane had been banned from France because of "irregularities".

Yemenia responded by criticising "false information and speculation about technical problems" on the plane.

The vice-president of the Comoros, Idi Nadhoim, also said France had not told them the plane was unsafe.

"It could have been easier for us if France had communicated to us the list of Airbus planes not good to fly, which is not the case," he told France 24 television.

Several Comoran expatriates, angry with what they see as the poor state of the company's aircraft, tried to stop passengers from checking in for another Yemenia flight leaving Paris Charles de Gaulle airport for Sanaa.

About 60 people failed to check in, reports said, but it was not clear how many did so as a result of the protest.

The French AFP news agency reported that the authorities were investigating whether a manslaughter case could be opened, but it was unclear against whom.

The crash was the second involving an Airbus aircraft in recent weeks. On 1 June an Air France Airbus 330 travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board.

HOW THE BLACK BOX WORKS
Infographic of black box


Flight data recorders, or "black boxes", are in fact orange or red.
Commercial aircraft carry two. One logs performance and condition of aircraft in flight, another records conversations of crew and their contact with Air Traffic controllers during the flight.
The Crash Survivable Memory Unit (CSMU) contains a memory board surrounded by thermal insulation and steel armour that can withstand a crash impact thousands of times the force of gravity and survive in the sea at depths of 20,000ft (6,096m).
The CSMU is insulated to sustain temperatures up to 1,100C for up to an hour or "low" temperature fires of around 260C for 10 hours.
An underwater locator beacon fitted on recorders emits continuous ultrasonic "ping" when they come into contact with water. The signal can reach the surface from depths of 14,000ft.


Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Mystery continues as sub looks for jet black box


Paris: A French submarine with advanced sonar equipment is due to begin searching on Wednesday for the flight recorders of the Air France airliner which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean last week, the French military said. The nuclear-powered submarine Emeraude was dispatched to the area last week to help recover the "black box" flight recorders, which may contain clues to explain the disaster and which are believed to lie deep on the Atlantic ocean floor. "The Emeraude will begin its patrol during the morning in an initial search zone of 36 km by 36," Christophe Prazuck, a spokesman for the French military said. He said the search zone would be changed daily. If the recorders are found, unmanned robot submarines on board the Pourquoi Pas, a French exploration and survey ship which has also been deployed to the area, could be used to bring them in.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Air France jet wreckage found



Brazil's military has found the wreckage of the Air France passenger jet that disappeared with 228 people on board, the country's defence minister says.
Nelson Jobim said on Tuesday that there was "no doubt" that Flight AF447 had crashed into the Atlantic after Brazilian military aircraft found debris along a 5km stretch of the ocean.
Speaking in Rio de Janerio, Jobim said that the find "confirms that the plane went down in that area", hundreds of kilometres from the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.
No bodies have yet been spotted among what was said to be metallic and non-metallic debris. Search aircraft continue to scour the area and the first navy ships are expected to arrive on Wednesday.
The wreckage was spotted about 1,000km off the country's coast and included aircraft seats, an orange buoy, metallic objects and fuel slicks.
Brazilian commercial pilots said earlier on Tuesday that they had spotted what appeared to be fire in the Atlantic.
The Air France flight from Brazil to France with 228 people on board dropped off radar screens on Monday morning, hours after taking off from Rio de Janeiro.
The authorities say they are still trying to determine what caused the accident but think there is no chance of finding survivors.
The airliner had encountered a severe thunderstorm before sending an automated message saying that its electrical system had failed at 02:14 GMT on Monday. Pierre-Henry Gourgeon, Air France's chief executive, said "several electrical systems had broken down".
"It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came," he said.
Jean-Louis Borloo, the French environment minister, said officials did not believe the Airbus A330-200 could have been brought down by something as simple as a bolt of lightning, which previous reports had suggested.
"There really had to be a succession of extraordinary events to be able to explain this situation," he told RTL radio. He said "the race against the clock has begun" to find the aircraft's two data recorders, commonly known as "black boxes", which emit signals for up to 30 days.
Jobim said the recorders could be on the ocean floor as far down as 3,000m.
Alain Bouillard, who led the probe into the crash of a Concorde in July 2000, has been put in charge of France's accident investigation team. Herve Morin, France's defence minister, said "we have no signs so far" of terrorism, but all hypotheses must be studied.
Air France said the 216 passengers from 32 countries comprised 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby.
There were also 12 French crew members on board.
More than half of the passengers were either French or Brazilian.
If confirmed that all 228 people on board are dead, it would be the worst loss of life in Air France's history and civil aviation's worst accident for more than a decade.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Atlantic searched for lost plane



Rescuers are searching waters deep in the Atlantic Ocean for a French airliner which disappeared in a storm early on Monday.
The search, involving ships and planes from many nations, was part-suspended overnight, but aircraft with monitoring equipment continued to scour the sea. Brazilian authorities are investigating reports that another passenger plane's crew saw "bright spots" in the ocean.
The Air France Airbus was heading from Brazil to Paris when it disappeared. France believes there is little hope of finding survivors from among the 228 passengers and crew aboard the flight. Vessels from France, Spain, Senegal and Brazil are involved in the search, while the United States is said to be offering help with satellite reconnaissance. US President Barack Obama said Washington would provide "any help necessary" to find out what had happened to the plane. Plane crews have narrowed their search to a zone half-way between Brazil and west Africa, said Pierre-Henry Gourgeon, chief executive of Air France, late on Monday. Their work may be aided by the Airbus's Argos beacons, which will emit signals for several days, he added.
Up to a dozen reports of electrical failures were sent from the plane before it vanished over the ocean. French officials believe it may have been disabled by a storm. French and US sources have ruled out terrorism as the cause of the plane's loss. Most of the missing people are Brazilian or French but they include a total of 32 nationalities. Five Britons and three Irish citizens are among them. One of the Brazilians on board was Pedro Luis de Orleans e Braganca, a direct descendent of the last Brazilian emperior, Dom Pedro II, a spokesman for the family said.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy said he had told friends and relatives waiting at the Charles de Gaulle "the truth" - that the chances of finding anyone alive were "very small".
If no survivors are found, it will be the worst loss of life involving an Air France plane in the firm's 75-year history. French reconnaissance plane based in Dakar, Senegal, was due to reach the suspected crash area on Monday evening. It was to be followed by two other French planes based in Dakar, and a naval vessel currently cruising in the Gulf of Guinea, several days' sailing away. Spain and Senegal have also sent planes to help in the search. Brazil has sent out seven air force planes and three naval ships to help in the search, far off the north-eastern Brazilian coast. Some aircraft were not expected until Wednesday morning. Air force spokesman Col Jorge Amaral said earlier they were trying to reach the point from where the aircraft had last made contact, about 1,200km (745 miles) north-east of Natal. But Maria Celina Rodrigues, the Brazilian consul in Paris, sail the depth of the ocean would make it difficult for searchers.
"They are hoping they can find debris, pieces, lifejackets that eventually float, but that takes some time," she told the Associated Press. The Brazilian authorities have also said they are investigating a possible sighting of wreckage in the area, reported Reuters news agency.
The crew of a TAM Linhas Aereas flight travelling over the area in the other direction shortly after the Airbus' last signal had reported seeing "bright spots" in the ocean about 1,300 km (800 miles) from the Fernando de Noronha archipelago off Brazil's north-eastern coast. The plane's automatic reports were generated at around 0200 GMT on Monday, about four hours after Flight AF 447 left Rio de Janeiro, and as it was heading through turbulence towards the west African coast. "A succession of a dozen technical messages" showed that "several electrical systems had broken down" which caused a "totally unprecedented situation in the plane", said Mr Gourgeon. "It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came," he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport, where the airliner had been due to land. Flight AF 447 was flying at an altitude of 10,670m (35,000ft) shortly before it went missing. A meteorologist who spoke to the Associated Press said tropical thunderstorms in the Atlantic could tower up to 15,240m (50,000ft). "At the altitude it was flying, it's possible that the Air France plane flew directly into the most charged part of the storm - the top," said Henry Margusity, senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com. French officials have stressed that the plane's captain was very experienced, clocking up more than 11,000 hours of flight.
Crisis centres have been set up at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and Rio's Tom Jobim international airport.

'Fire' sighting offers plane clue


Pilots from Brazil's largest airline have spotted what appeared to be fire in the Atlantic ocean, along the route of an Air France jet that disappeared more than 24 hours ago.
The search for the missing aircraft continued on Tuesday, with Brazilian aircraft equipped with sensors sweeping a part of the Atlantic Ocean where the aircraft is thought to have disappeared.
Al Jazeera's Wayne Hay said that so far the only clue as to what had happened to the Air France jet was the apparent sighting of a fire by the Brazilian airline. "They say pilots on board a plane flying in the opposite direction claim they saw orange spots in the ocean," he reported.
Jose Alencar, Brazil's vice president, confirmed the reports. "A TAM airlines plane from Brazil supposedly saw something on fire in the Atlantic Ocean. This was an aeroplane that landed today," Alencar said on Monday. The Air France jet, an Airbus A330-200, was carrying 228 people from at least 32 countries on its route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it is believed to have vanished in a severe thunderstorm on Monday. Authorities said they are still trying to determine what caused the accident, but that they fear there is no chance of finding survivors. Meanwhile, crews from both sides of the Atlantic have stepped up the hunt for the jet. The Pentagon said on Monday it had dispatched a surveillance aircraft and a search and rescue team to help Brazilian and French aircraft. France has also asked Washington to use its spy satellites and listening posts to help with the search. Officials said the search was centred on an area more than 1,100km off the Brazilian coast and while search aircraft have managed to fly over the area, the first navy ships are not expected to arrive until Wednesday. Air France said the 216 passengers from 32 countries comprised 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby. There were also 12 French crew members on board. More than half of the passengers were either French or Brazilian. Flight AF447 had encountered a severe thunderstorm before sending an automated message saying that its electrical system had failed at 02:14 GMT on Monday. Pierre-Henry Gourgeon, Air France's chief executive, said "several electrical systems had broken down". "It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came," he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where the flight had been due to land. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, told relatives waiting for their loved ones at the airport that "the prospects of finding any survivors are very slim". "It's a catastrophe the likes of which Air France has never seen," he added. If confirmed that all 228 people on board are dead, it would be the worst loss of life in Air France's history and civil aviation's worst accident for more than a decade.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Tyson's daughter dies aged four


The four-year-old daughter of US boxer Mike Tyson has died, a day after she was injured while playing at home, police in Phoenix have said.
Exodus Tyson had been in hospital on life support since Monday, when she was found with her neck caught in a cable of a treadmill exercise machine. Mr Tyson, an ex-heavyweight champion, was in Las Vegas when it happened, but flew to Phoenix on Monday. A police investigation has ruled the death a "tragic accident." "I was just advised by investigators that Exodus Tyson was pronounced deceased at 1145 [local time on Tuesday - 1845 GMT] at the hospital," Phoenix police spokesman Andy Hill said in a statement. "Our sympathies go out to the family."
Police had earlier said the girl was playing on the treadmill on Monday when her head pparently slipped inside a cord hanging under the console. They said the girl had either put her head in the looped cord or slipped and was unable to remove it. She was found by her older brother at the family's home in Arizona. The child's mother had called emergency services when she was alerted by her son and tried to resuscitate her. The family has asked for privacy.

Monday, May 25, 2009

12 labourers buried aliv

RALLIVAGU DAM SITE (ADILABAD DT.): Twelve migrant labourers from Palamur (Mahabubnagar) were buried alive on Sunday when they were at work at the Rallivagu dam site, about 6 km from Mancherial town. The workers were levelling a trench at the ground level at a depth of about 15 feet when the mud on one side caved in on them.

The dead persons included eight women and a 12-year-old boy. Four of them were members of a single family, including a newly wed couple.
A trench was dug on three sides of a HT electricity pylon of APTransco to strengthen the base of the iron tower. The tower stands on the guide bank of Rallivagu and the 6-foot wide trench was dug around it.
The bodies were extricated with the help of earth-moving machinery in an operation that lasted about five hours.
The labourers belonged to a group of 40 Scheduled Caste persons from different villages of Devarakadra mandal of Mahabubnagar district. In charge Collector Vijay Kumar announced ex gratia of Rs. 2 lakh to each of the persons who died in the accident, including Rs. 50,000 from Apathbandhu funds.
Those killed in the accident have been identified as Kalla Venkatamma, 45, Kalla Rameshwari 18, Kalla Buran 20 and his wife Kalla Maheshwari, 18, from Rekulapalli village, Dandu Ashanna, 45, and Dandu Anil 12 from Rasala village, S. Balakrishnamma, 40, from Chinnachintakunta village, Undyala Nagamma 40 from Undyala, Rasala Manemma 18 from Maddur, Undyala Krishnaiah 24 from Undyala, Maddur Jyothi 30 and Kaddila Chittemma 40 from Maddur. Maddur Ramesh escaped with injuries.