It’s been well over 24 hours since we first heard that an Air France A330 disappeared over the ocean on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. In that time, I’ve seen a million different theories about what happened, and that always makes me angry. We have no idea what happened here, and really, we’ll be lucky if we ever find out. Here’s what we do know about the accident.

• Air France #447, operated by a 4-year-old A330, left Rio at 703p bound for Paris
• The airplane was off the coast of Brazil, beyond radar coverage when it hit some rough weather
• Something bad happened and a bunch of technical faults were automatically sent to Air France, but the pilots never sent a distress message
• The plane never arrived in Paris

Really, that’s all we know. And remember, while there were storms in the area alongside reports of strong turbulence, we have nothing to indicate that turbulence caused the accident. Also, those automated technical fault messages that were received by Air France stating that there had been an electrical problem and pressurization was lost (among other things)? Even if that did happen (false reports are always possible), we still have no clue why any of that happened, and there could be a million explanations.

There were no distress calls from the pilots, and I can only think of three reasons that might happen. Either the radios failed (highly unlikely), the pilots did this on purpose (even more unlikely), or it happened so fast that there wasn’t even time for a radio call (most likely). It makes me sick just thinking about what it was like on that plane toward the end.

I think it’s safe to say that this isn’t going to end up like the TV show “Lost.” This airplane is likely in a million pieces scattered on and in the Atlantic Ocean. At some point, search teams will find a debris field, and they might be able to put together some fact-based theories. But the true jewel here will be the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder; the so-called black boxes. Those might be at the bottom of the ocean, but hopefully they’ll be recovered with good data still retrievable. Without those, it’s going to be incredibly hard to figure out what really happened.

Right now, the list of suspects is long, and it’s certainly baffling. Airplanes just don’t fall out of the sky, not even during severe turbulence. There were other airplanes flying through the area that made it safely, and I’m sure those pilots will be interviewed. For example, Iberia 6024 left Rio for Madrid 20 minutes after the Air France flight. Lufthansa 507 left Sao Paulo for Frankfurt about half an hour before the Air France flight, so they might have been fairly close to each other. Air France itself had another A330 leave Sao Paulo for Paris only 27 minutes later. And these are just some of the aircraft in the neighborhood.

Hopefully we will learn more about what happened here, because none of the theories that keep being flung out there by the media seem to make sense on their own. As always, this will end up being a series of different problems that come together to form a true catastrophe.

Hope you all enjoyed the guest posts, but now it’s time for me to get back to work. We had a fantastic time in French Polynesia, and it’s going to take me a little time to get back into the swing of things. I thought I’d ease myself back in with a trip report, starting with Air France from LA to Papeete, Tahiti. Later this week, I’ll have the more fun stuff – Air Tahiti around the islands along with some of the most relaxing hotels on earth.

Last October, I asked you all whether we should fly Air France or Air Tahiti Nui down. Air France won out, and that’s what we did thanks to a slightly lower business class fare ($2825.41 per person) and a better schedule. This was the first time I’ve ever paid for a business class ticket outright, so my expectations may have been higher than normal, but it just wasn’t up to snuff.

Our flight out was at 1030p, so we decided to get there at 830p so we’d have a little time in the lounge beforehand. There was no line to check in at that time, but Terminal 2 at LAX still doesn’t have inline baggage screening. So we had to lug our bags over to the machine and drop them off. Though the TSA said we could leave, there was a huge pile of bags and we didn’t trust them. We waited.

Flight crews kept dropping their bags off and then more people on other flights came as well and had to wait in a long line to even drop their bags off. It took us 20 minutes before we saw our bag go through the machine, and only then did we make our way through a short but slow security line on our way to the lounge.

The lounge is currently the Northwest lounge, but Northwest should be heading for greener pastures (Delta’s terminal) in June. I assume Air France/KLM will become the primary tenant, and I hope they’ll do some serious work on the place. One thing they can’t fix is that it’s too small. Our one flight with a couple stragglers from other Northwest flights basically filled the place up.

What they can fix is the awful state of the lounge. The rugs are threadbare, the seating and tables are old and scratched up, and the lighting is bad. We did have some wine to pass the time, but the enjoyment was dampened when I had to sit on a table to drink it.

As we finished our drinks, they called our flight for boarding, so we headed down and used the premium cabin boarding line. The agent apparently decided we weren’t premium enough and tried to push us out of the way to allow first class passengers ahead of us. Ok.

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April 10, 2009
Air France #674 Lv Los Angeles (LAX) 1030p Arr Papeete (PPT) 350a
LAX: Gate 27, Runway 24L, Dept On Time
PPT: Gate ??, Runway 22, Arr 9m Early
Aircraft: F-GSPG, Boeing 777-228ER, Standard White Colors, Mostly Full
Seat: 5L
Flight Time: 7h54m


Once onboard, we found our seats on the right side of the plane and settled in for the flight. (The picture at right is of the seat on the return flight, but you get the idea.) We weren’t really greeted by anyone until about 20 minutes into boarding when flight attendants came around with champagne and juice for anyone who was interested. Soon enough it was time to push back and take off. After we left the California coast, we wouldn’t see land again until we reached Tahiti.

Once in the air, my wife, Kirsten, and I had another drink, so we had a bit of a nice buzz going as we played with the entertainment system. It wasn’t particularly easy to navigate. Yes, it had movies, music, etc, but getting around them was somewhat clunky. And it’s not organized very well. For example, something in “latest” movies that was a comedy couldn’t also be found under “comedy,” so it required some hunting and pecking, even though the selection was fairly limited.

As I got into my movie (The Wrestler – great flick), dinner was served. I wasn’t very hungry, but since it was dinner time in Tahiti, I decided to at least have something. The foie gras appetizer was ok, and the beef was actually pretty good. Kirsten, however, had that night’s special which was lamb, and I thought that was really good. Still, since I wasn’t hungry, I didn’t really pay too much attention to the food. Kirsten, on the other hand, paid close attention and didn’t think it was very good.

After the meal, I tried to sleep, but that wasn’t going to happen. This was my first time in an angled lie-flat seat and I just couldn’t sleep in it. I kept sliding down in my pants, and the amount of weight that ended up being put on my feet into the footrest prevented me from getting comfortable. It just didn’t feel flat to me. I put the bed back into a cradle-style position and had slightly more success, sleeping on and off for a couple hours.

About an hour and a half out, they woke us all up for breakfast. Now, I understand airlines feel the need to bracket you on both ends with food, but breakfast at midnight Tahitian time (same as Hawai’i time – 3 hours behind LA) made very little sense. Still I was actually feeling hungry at this point, so I had some – it was just a croissant with some fruit.

Around 3a, we started our descent into the black night. This was probably the worst possible flight for sightseeing on the ground and the descent was no different. It was only about 2 minutes before landing that I saw my first light on land, and we touched down at 345a into an airport that was just waking up.

After getting our bags, we entered into the worst part of the trip – the wait for our next flight. We had about 2 hours in a hot, humid, still airport before our 6a trip out to another island and we had nothing to do but wait. I’ll have more on the interisland flights in a later report, but let’s skip ahead to the return on Air France two weeks later.

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We were told to get to the airport around 2 hours before departure, but we thought about not taking that warning too seriously. I’m really glad we did, because it was a complete mess over there.

It took 20 minutes to return the car we had rented for a day, and then it was another 30 minutes in the premium check-in line before we reached an agent to check Kirsten’s bag. (As usual, I only carried on, even for a two week trip.) The economy line was much worse (at left) and there were a lot of angry people around as the line barely moved.

Once checked in, we went to the lounge which is shared by all carriers at the airport. This one was much nicer than the one in LA with big comfy chairs and plenty of room. (It was recently expanded.) I took this shot out the window with Moorea in the background. Yes, it was hard to leave this place.

Soon they called boarding, so we went downstairs to find the absurdly numbered gate 61. There are basically five or six doors in a holdroom and for some reason they decided they needed a gate 61. It’s not fooling anyone into thinking this is a big airport.

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April 25, 2009
Air France #673 Lv Papeete (PPT) 730a Arr Los Angeles (LAX) 645p
PPT: Gate 61, Runway 4, Dept 24m Late
LAX: Gate 26, Runway 24R, Arr 1m Early
Aircraft: F-GSPK, Boeing 777-228ER, Standard White Colors, Mostly Full
Seat: 4A
Flight Time: 7h35m


I took the window seat and immediately found that the tray wouldn’t close properly into the armrest. I told the flight attendant so that he would write it up for when we arrived, but a mechanic came onboard to look while we were there. Though Air Tahiti Nui will be handling the maintenance for Air France’s 777s in Papeete, they still haven’t gotten the official sign-off on it, so Air France has an LAX-based tech down there for awhile.

So he came on and knew the problem right away. He dug in and pulled out a dirty fork, knife, and spoon and said it happens all the time. Nasty. It still wouldn’t close, however, but at least it wasn’t sticking out as far. I felt bad thinking I was holding up the plane to fix the tray, but they assured me that wasn’t the case. They were still waiting for nine passengers to show up – they were stuck in that horrible line at the ticket counter. They said this was pretty normal.

We finally got in the air and headed north. It was a nice morning, but apparently Air France thought it was time to serve lunch. So we had a full lunch service, and I had the lamb this time which was pretty good. I had a little morning scotch (why not?) and settled in for a day of watching movies.

Kirsten also wanted to watch movies, but her headphones weren’t working right (the noise-canceling feature was cutting in and out). The design Air France uses for their seat has the headphones built in to it so you can’t swap them out. Instead, they brought a coach headset forward to plug into an extra jack that’s in each seat. At least they were very apologetic, but it was an inferior headset.

After the meal, the flight attendants basically disappeared into the galley and didn’t check on us much at all for the bulk of the flight. To be fair, about halfway through, we plowed into some nasty turbulence that didn’t let up for probably about an hour. (Thank you, weather.com for your mapping goodness.)

This was some pretty rough stuff that would probably be categorized as moderate turbulence, if not a little worse for brief periods. So for quite awhile, the crew couldn’t get up. But even when that was done, I still had to get up to ask for a drink refill. (After turbulence like that, I needed another drink. I am somewhat of an anxious flier, believe it or not.)

We did see them again when they served a light meal a couple hours out of LA. And when they finished, they even tried to take my half-full glass of scotch for some unknown reason. I wasn’t having any of that.

Toward the end, one of the flight attendants did come around and personally asked how everyone was doing – just some small talk that was a nice gesture. They also handed out a survey to a select few which I filled out just as we were crossing the coast. We came in from the south and then landed on the north runways.

It was easy to get through immigration but the customs lines were incredibly long and there were a lot of tired and angry faces patiently waiting to get out of there after long flights. About 20 minutes later, we were on our way home.

I’ll have the rest of the trip ready for you soon.

The growing popularity of the premium economy cabin continues as Air France has decided that the time has come to roll out “Premium Voyageur” on their widebodies. Upon first glance, it looks like a strong entry.

Premium Voyageur just sounds fancy, right? I mean, without that last “u” in there, it’s just plain, old “Premium Voyager,” and that would have been boring. Of course I’m kidding. I don’t care what you call it as long as the product is good. Take a look:

They’ve gone with a shell seat that will apparently recline into itself (up to 123 degrees). The seat is about an inch or two wider than average – about 19 inches – and the armrests are wider so you don’t have to fight your neighbor. A 38 inch seat pitch seems to be about standard for premium economy. (Note: I’m talking about a real premium economy class and not United’s Economy Plus.) Some amenities come from business (now branded Affaires) class. You get a little travel kit when you fly, and you’ll get a bottle of water, noise-reducing headphones, and a better pillow and blanket. The food, however, is strictly coach class.

As you would probably hope, the benefit isn’t just on the aircraft. You get priority check-in at the airport, priority baggage delivery, and all that other fun stuff that comes with being a premium traveler.

Overall, it looks like they’ve done a nice job As budgets tighten, many business class travelers may look at this as a decent option. They gave some sample pricing of about $1,400 on a roundtrip from Paris to New York, so that can save thousands over a higher class of service.

But I’d bet they’re really looking at this as an opportunity for coach passengers to buy up. At least, that’s how the seat map looks. The business and first class cabins are keeping the same number of seats while the coach cabin loses. On a 777, coach loses 50 seats in coach and gains 28 Premium Voyageur instead.

These seats will be up for sale on some routes on April 1 with installations starting soon after. Looks like Paris to New York, Tokyo, and Osaka will get outfitted first.

Ok kids, who’s ready for an Alitalia update? I know, it’s been a little while. It may seem like plenty has happened, but really, we’re not that much closer to resolving this hilarious situation. One of these days, I’ll get around to making a mini-documentary that’s set to the Benny Hill theme music.

So what’s the latest? Well, CAI, the consortium of Italian businessmen, did agree to buy Alitalia for a little over €400 million plus another €600 million in debt. Sounds expensive, but it’s not when you consider that they just get to cherry pick the good parts of the airline that they want to keep. For example, they will only take 93 of Alitalia’s 173 aircraft and only about 60% of the airline’s employees will still have jobs. You know what that means. . . more strikes!

But alas, not all of the prized assets are part of the deal. It appears that Alitalia will be auctioning off its fine art collection. Yes, it had a fine art collection. Is anyone still wondering what’s wrong with this airline?

Anyway, the sale was supposed to be final earlier this week, but wouldn’t you know it’s delayed? Final approval was received yesterday from the EU, and the Italian government has now decided to require that 10% of all seats be sold at the lowest prices available this year. I can’t make this up.

They now say the deal will be signed on December 12, but CAI still needs to get its hands on Air One so it can merge them and relaunch the new Alitalia in January. Why the delay? Sounds like they might be having trouble getting all the cash together in a timely manner. I know I’d think twice before dumping that money into the pot.

We also still don’t know whether Alitalia will partner up with Lufthansa or Air France. Air France has been relatively quiet, but Lufthansa is using a rather unconventional approach to winning this bid. Lufthansa has decided to launch Lufthansa Italia with a half dozen A319s flying out of Milan. I suppose the strategy here is that if Alitalia doesn’t pick Lufthansa, then Lufthansa will just build its own airline to compete (and crush) Alitalia. We’ll see if that works out for them.

This really should have been resolved long ago, but I’m sure enjoying that it continues to drag on.

I’m happily recovering from yesterday’s turkey-induced stupor, so there’ll be no writing for me today. Instead, let’s take a look at some fun-filled airplane porn! This time, we head across the Atlantic to check out Air France’s new A320 retrojet.

I believe that’s one of the biggest registrations I’ve seen painted on a modern airplane. Still, it looks pretty good to me. This shot comes courtesy of Guillaume Besnard. Click to see more of his photos. I’ll be back on Monday as usual.