Burning wreckage spotted in ocean by airline pilot flying behind Air France flight 447

Burning wreckage spotted in ocean: airline pilot
2nd June 2009, 11:00 WST

Burning wreckage, of what could be the missing Air France A330 that disappeared on Monday has been spotted by another airline pilot.

According to the Brazilian airline TAM the pilots of one of its A330s that took off shortly after the Air France aircraft and was flying the identical route spotted what has been termed “orange coloured spots on the ocean”.

The Brazilian Air Force has confirmed the sighting about 40 minutes after the last contact between Air France Flight 447 and Brazil’s air control centre.

The TAM pilot “saw glowing spots on the high sea on its path between Europe and Brazil, about 1,300 km off the island Fernando de Noronha”, TAM said in a statement.

The Fernando de Noronha island is about 350km off the Brazilian coast.

There is widespread speculation that the Air France Airbus A330-200, with 228 people on board, blundered into a severe thunderstorm system that stretched across the Atlantic just south of the equator.
While aircraft are designed to withstand severe turbulence, they typically cannot survive the centre of an intense thunder cell.

The A330 may have also been hit by a massive lighting strike, although aircraft are built to withstand such impacts and are fully insulated with discharge rods.

On average aircraft are hit by lighting twice a year.

There are unconfirmed reports that passengers had sent text messages to friends and loved ones saying they “were afraid”.

http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=145447

Any ships in the area?

from any receiver/repeater towers.