Nicholas Chia

I believe that's 9M-MPH - "Langkawi"

Beautiful nose shots of Kilimanjaro, T Azahan!

In theory, a free fall would cause a state of 0G, or something like without gravity. However, if Flight 447 had fell from the sky, it wouldn't have been a free fall, due to the wind resistance factor, as free falling means falling only due to the gravitational force. Therefore, yes, the passengers would have likely experienced some G force.

Had some nice, strong light today, giving good contrast. Lion Air 747-400 without engines 1 and 4 9M-MKC JA623J Silver Bullet

It has been confirmed that the wreckage and bits discovered is from that of flight 447. All 228 on board are assumed dead.

Rest in peace, crew and passengers of Air France 447.

Yes I remember the episode on Bristow flight 56C. The tail rotor was struck by lightning and severely damaged. On that particular helicopter, the rotor was made of a carbon composite material without getting approval beforehand. Previously, it was made of glass fibre. And the last part they said something like an aircraft made of composite materials like the A380 and 787 may be more prone to lightning strikes.

Yes, flight deck crew of a TAM airlines flight from Europe to Brazil saw orange spots over the Atlantic. Hope it's AF447. It's also mentioned that it had an electrical failure relay message automatically sent to traffic controllers, and if it had, that would have been almost certainly that it crashed, due to the fly-by-wire control systems (I think there were hydraulic failures too). Coupled with terrible flying conditions (weather), that would be a disaster.

Okay, assuming they can send in those robots (I've seen them in Air Crash Investigation), it's going to take quite a long time to look for it and the signal the black box sends out lasts only about 30 days I think.

I'm hoping for a miracle, but that's unlikely. The plane would have already run out of fuel if it stayed airborne. This is really saddening, especially when you watch the whole thing unfold before you. I wonder how are they going to retrieve the black boxes since it'll be right at the bottom of the ocean if it did crash.

Let's all pray for flight 447. Also note that on 27 May, another Air France flight had a bomb threat (see here) An Air France spokesman also said that it could have been struck by lightning.