Flight 19 - Bermuda Triangle Mystery

AIR FRANCE Flight 447.. Crash

Air France Flight 447 (abbreviated AF447) was a scheduled commercial flight from Galeão International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, France. On 1 June 2009, the Airbus A330-200 aircraft serving the flight crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 216 passengers and 12 crew. The accident was the deadliest in the history of Air France^[4][5] and has also been described as the worst accident in French aviation history.^[6] It was the deadliest commercial airliner accident to occur since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in New York City in 2001^[7] and the first fatal accident involving an Airbus A330 airliner in passenger service.

While the investigation is still awaiting formal conclusion, preliminary reports of the BEA stated that the aircraft crashed following an aerodynamic stall caused by inconsistent airspeed sensor readings, the disengagement of the autopilot, and the pilot making nose-up inputs despite stall warnings, causing a fatal loss of airspeed and a sharp descent. Additionally, reports indicated that the pilots had not received specific training in "manual airplane handling of approach to stall and stall recovery at high altitude", and that this was not a standard training requirement at the time of the accident.^[8][9]

The reason for the faulty readings is unknown, but it is assumed by the accident investigators to have been caused by the formation of ice inside the pitot tubes, depriving the airspeed sensors of forward-facing air pressure.^[10][11][12] Pitot tube icing has contributed to airliner crashes in the past – such as Northwest Airlines Flight 6231 in 1974.^[13]

The investigation into the accident was initially hampered by the lack of eyewitness evidence and radar tracks, as well as by difficulty finding the aircraft's black boxes, which were located and recovered from the ocean floor in May 2011, nearly two years after the accident.^[2][14]

The final report will be released in a news conference on 5 July 2012.^[1]

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein in 1921.
Signature

Albert Einstein ( 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a Germantheoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics.^[2][3] Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century. While best known for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc² (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"),^[4] he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".^[5] The latter was pivotal in establishing quantum theory within physics.

Near the beginning of his career, Einstein thought that Newtonian mechanics was no longer enough to reconcile the laws of classical mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field. This led to the development of his special theory of relativity. He realized, however, that the principle of relativity could also be extended to gravitational fields, and with his subsequent theory of gravitation in 1916, he published a paper on the general theory of relativity. He continued to deal with problems of statistical mechanics and quantum theory, which led to his explanations of particle theory and themotion of molecules. He also investigated the thermal properties of light which laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. In 1917, Einstein applied the general theory of relativity to model the structure of the universe as a whole.^[6]

He was visiting the United States when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and did not go back to Germany, where he had been a professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He settled in the U.S., becoming a citizen in 1940.^[7] On the eve of World War II, he helped alert President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Germany might be developing an atomic weapon, and recommended that the U.S. begin similar research; this eventually led to what would become theManhattan Project. Einstein was in support of defending the Allied forces, but largely denounced using the new discovery of nuclear fission as a weapon. Later, together with Bertrand Russell, Einstein signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, which highlighted the danger of nuclear weapons. Einstein was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studyin Princeton, New Jersey, until his death in 1955.

Einstein published more than 300 scientific papers along with over 150 non-scientific works.^[6][8] His great intelligence and originality have made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius.^[9]