Terror Names Linked To Air France Flight 447
Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.
French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 31 May.
Flight AF447 crashed in the mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.
While it is certain that there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out.
Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), the French equivalent of MI6, were dispatched to Brazil.
It was there that they established that two names on the passenger list are also on highly-classified documents listing the names of radical Muslims considered a threat to the French Republic.
A source working for the French security services told Paris weekly L’Express that the link was “highly significant”.
Agents are now trying to establish dates of birth for the two dead passengers, and family connections.
There is a possibility the name similarities are simply a “macabre coincidence”, the source added, but the revelation is still being “taken very seriously”.
Search Crews Find Bodies From Air France Flight 447
June 6, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
Update: The Brazilian Air Force has recovered the first two bodies from the Air France crash, the BBC reports. They also found a suitcase and a backback with a laptop inside. “We confirm the recovery from the water debris and bodies from the Air France plane,” an air force spokesman said. “We can’t give more information without confirming what we have.” The remains were recovered this morning, and experts are on their way to investigate.
The remains were taken from the water at 0814 Brazilian time (1114 GMT), said spokesman Jorge Amaral.
Experts on human remains are on their way to examine the find.
All 228 passengers and crew on board AF 447 are believed to have been killed when the plane disappeared during its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Developing…
Flight 447 – Brazil Says Recovered Debris Not From Jet
June 5, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
The French government expressed deep disappointment Friday over the news that ocean debris recovered by the Brazilian military this week appeared to be the remains of a shipwreck and not from an Air France jet that crashed in the South Atlantic on Monday.
The revelation came as Airbus, the manufacturer of the missing jet, issued a warning on Thursday to all its customers to follow established procedures when pilots suspect airspeed indicators are not functioning properly. The bulletin appeared to be the first hint that malfunctioning instruments indicators might have played an important role in the crash.
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“French authorities have been saying for several days that we have to be extremely prudent. Our planes and naval ships have seen nothing.”
He said it was “bad news” that the Brazilian teams had been mistaken. “We would have preferred that it had come from the plane and that we had some information.”
Air France Jet Carrying 228 Missing Over Atlantic Ocean
June 1, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
An Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris lost contact with air traffic controllers after flying into a strong thunderstorm over the Atlantic Ocean and signaling it had an electric problem.
Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330, was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members, company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand said. The flight left Rio on Sunday at 7 p.m. local time.
About four hours later, the plane sent an automatic signal indicating electrical problems while going through strong turbulence, Air France said.
The plane disappeared about 190 miles northeast of the coastal Brazilian city of Natal, near the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, a Brazilian air force spokesman said. The air force began a search Monday morning near Fernando de Noronha, he added, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with air force policy.
