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The findings of the official Air France Investigation report that Air France Flight AF 447 did not break up in mid air, instead, hit the water intact. The French Air Accident Investigation bureau (BEA) said that the aircraft appears to have hit the water in flying position with strong vertical acceleration.

The airbus hit the water belly first but with an almost vertical descent. Hitting the water very very fast, items at the front of the aircraft were pushed to the back. It is unknown if the pilots were in control of the aircraft before it crashed. At that speed, the G-Forces would have the pilots pushed back in their seats and would possibly be unable to move their arms etc.

The black box and flight data recorders still have not been found and it is now over 30 days since flight AF447 crashed – they will continue searching for 10 more days. Honeywell, who make the black boxes, say that they have a 100% recovery record for FDRs. I think it is highly unlikely that these will now be found, unless they are entangled in a large piece of fuselage.

Until they are found we will not know for definite what caused the crash.

Another good choice from Waterford Film for All. The Class (or Entre Les Murs in French … don’t know where they got the translation from) is about a teacher in a French secondary school trying to reach out to a troubled and troublesome class of underprivileged kids.

The style of the film is quite unusual, in that you feel you are sitting in the class, the camera panning around the room as comments and chaos fly around the class room. The dialogue is very fast in parts but is witty also. The actors who play the students are very good and the classroom scenes have a bit of improvisation in the dialogue which adds to the realism.

Some reviews claim this is a feel good film – I think, it could have been, but did not succeed. The film starts going in one direction, and you think you know where the film will end up, but I felt at the end it didn’t achieve its potential. Its about 40 mins too long, it has a weaker than expected conclusion (I don’t like films that just leave you hanging), and some loose ends were not resolved.  Just because it has weak points does not mean I didn’t enjoy the majority of the film, it was entertaining and compelling in parts.

The Class was directed by Laurent Cantet and won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year and was very unlucky not to get an Academy award.

For more on Waterford Film for All and The Class, click here

Overall 6½/10

Another Airbus aircraft has crashed, this time a Yemeni airliner crashed in the Indian Ocean. The Yemenia Airbus 310 flight IY626 was flying from the Yemeni capital Sanaa – however the flight originated in France.

The only survivor (this far) was a five-year-old child.

Apparently EU officials did question Yemenia’s safety record and proposed a world blacklist of those carriers which they deemed to be unsafe. It is usually not the aircraft which is the problem but more often than not, poor maintenance or poor (substitute) parts which have been found in many crashes, which can contribute towards air disasters. These are 2 very different aircraft and 2 companies with very different records – so you cannot really draw anything into them having the same manufacturer. There are also rumours that France banned this airline in 2007.

The Airbus that crashed on June 1st and this Airbus both crashed at similar Longitudes, both flying at night, both around the equator, and were both Airbus flying in windy weather – but apart from that there are no details about whether or not a mayday message was issued.  One official did say thatthe  control tower had received notification the plane was on vectors for approach, a few miles out, and then lost contact with it.

After the Air France Airbus crash on June 1, NTSB accident investigators have been probing two recent failures of airspeed and altitude sensors and pitot tubes aboard Airbus A330s. The failures occurred on flights between the United States and Brazil in May and between Hong Kong and Japan in June. Both aircraft landed safely and there were no injuries or damage, however it is an unusual occurrance.

This latest crash comes near the point where a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 crashed near a beach on the Comoros islands in 1996, killing 125 of 175 passengers and crew.  Many of those who died had inflated their life jackets inside the aircraft – the crash was filmed on camera, as holiday makers lay enjoying the sun.

In a recent survey of litter in ireland, it was found that Irelands  cities and towns are now cleaner than they have been for many years – thanks to better awareness from the public, more bins and a huge effort from city and town councils.

However, some pedestrians and motorists ignore bins and drop cigarette butts and food on the streets.

Litter Report 2008

The 2008 National Litter Pollution Monitoring System report found that Cigarette-related litter formed 46% of street litter and food packaging & Sweet wrappers making up 17% of all litter.

For some reason, cigarette smokers have some sort of ignorance when it comes to litter. Cigarette Butts also contain over 4,000 toxins which can kill birds and fish – so why, when finished a cigarette do smokers flick their butt into the streets – in a “F**k it, someone else will clean  that up!” attitude.

Smokers should be fined for doing this – after all it is litter. If they are not fined then there should be a 10c tax on each cigarette in a packet to pay for butt clean up.

Butts in Australia

In Australia, cigarette butt awareness is something which is pushed quite a lot. On beaches, and in cities, signs tell you to put your cigarette butt in the bin.

Some examples are shown below.

Cigarette Butts - Signs in Australia

Naming and Shaming

I think Ireland may have to Name and Shame pubs, restuarants or outlets which don’t encourage smokers to bin their butts when finished smoking.

The 10 Step Test

Try walking 10 steps in the city without seeing a cigarette butt on the ground – it is almost impossible.