Air France Jet Missing; 228 Onboard

(NEWSER) - An Air France flight scheduled from Buenos Aires to Paris was delayed last week because of a phoned-in bomb threat, according to Brazilian media. Authorities searched the plane for 90 minutes before allowing it to take off. Nothing was found. The delay occurred just three days before Air France flight 447 traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris mysteriously crashed into the Atlantic. Salvage crews are racing today to the scene where the plane's wreckage was spotted yesterday. More»

(NEWSER) - The Air France flight that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean early today after leaving Rio de Janeiro for Paris is believed to have crashed, Reuters reports. Mechanical malfunctions kept the aircraft's crew from keeping in touch with air-traffic controllers after they reported serious turbulence about 4 hours into the flight. "It is probably a combination of circumstances that could have led to the crash," an airline rep said. More»

Authorities say there was never a threat to safety

(NEWSER) - A US Airways flight from Paris to North Carolina was diverted to Maine after a woman claimed to have a device implanted in her body. Authorities have since determined that she posed "basically no threat," but the flight was halted "out of an abundance of caution," according to the TSA. The woman didn't threaten the flight, officials say; she simply gave the flight crew a note alerting them to the purported device. More»

Neither co-pilot had been trained for sensor malfunctions, new report says

(AP) - The crew piloting a doomed Air France jet over the Atlantic did not appear to know that the plane was in a stall, despite repeated warning signals, and never informed the passengers that anything was wrong before the jet plunged into the sea, according to new findings released today. Based on cockpit recordings from the crash, the French air accident investigation agency is recommending mandatory training for all pilots to help them fly planes manually and handle a high-altitude stall. More»

Crash victims pulled from wreckage could be preserved by icy depths

(NEWSER) - A French search team has pulled another 75 victims of the Air France Flight 447 crash out of the briny depths in recent days, a spokesman for the French military police said today. He would not say what condition the bodies were in, but Reuters notes that the first two bodies recovered from the crash—who were found still strapped to their airline seats at a depth of 12,800 feet—were well-preserved thanks to the icy temperatures at that depth. More»