Air France Flight 8969

Air France Flight 8969 was an Air France flight that was hijacked on 24 December 1994 by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) at Houari Boumedienne Airport, Algiers, Algeria, where the terrorists murdered three passengers, with the intention to blow up the plane over the Eiffel Tower in Paris. When the aircraft reached Marseille, the GIGN, a counter-terror unit of the French National Gendarmerie, stormed the plane and killed all four hijackers.

Flight

Algeria was in a state of civil war at the time of the hijacking. Aircraft flying to Algiers faced the possibility of missile attacks. As a result, Air France's flights to Algiers had crews entirely made of people who volunteered for the route. Air France had asked government officials if it absolutely had to continue flying to Algeria; as of the time of the hijacking, there had been no replies. Bernard Dhellemme was the captain of the flight. Jean-Paul Borderie was the copilot, and Alain Bossuat was the flight engineer. The Airbus A300B2-1C, tail number F-GBEC, had first flown on 28 February 1980.

Air France (band)

Air France was a band from Gothenburg, Sweden composed of Joel Karlsson and Henrik Markstedt. They were signed to the record label Sincerely Yours, founded by The Tough Alliance. Air France's music has been described as "post-rave bliss", "beach foam pop", and "Balearic disco". Their No Way Down EP received a Best New Music inclusion from Pitchfork Media and a rating of 8.6.

In August 2011, a new track titled "It Feels Good to Be Around You" from the band appeared on Pitchfork.

In April 2012, the band announced its break up.

Discography

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Air France Flight 4590

Air France Flight 4590 was an Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde, registration F-BTSC, on a scheduled international flight from Paris, France, to New York City. On 25 July 2000, local time 16:43 CET, it picked up a titanium alloy strip on takeoff. All one hundred passengers and nine crew members aboard the Concorde died when it crashed into a hotel in nearby Gonesse, while on the ground, four people were killed and one was critically injured.

The flight was chartered by German company Peter Deilmann Cruises; the passengers were on their way to board the cruise ship MS Deutschland in New York City for a 16-day cruise to Manta, Ecuador. This was the only fatal Concorde accident during its 27-year operational history.

Event summary

Post-accident investigation revealed that the aircraft was at or over the maximum takeoff weight for ambient temperature and other conditions, and 810 kilograms (1,790 lb) over the maximum structural weight. As it left the gate, it was loaded such that the centre of gravity was aft of the take-off limit. Fuel transfer during taxiing left the number five wing tank 94% full. A twelve-inch spacer that normally keeps the left main landing gear in alignment had not been replaced after recent maintenance; however, the French Bureau for Accident Investigation concluded that this did not contribute to the accident. The wind at the airport was light and variable that day, and was reported to the cockpit crew as an eight knot tailwind as they lined up on runway 26R.

Air France Flight 447

Air France Flight 447 (AF447/AFR447) was a scheduled passenger flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, France, which crashed on 1 June 2009. The Airbus A330, operated by Air France, entered an aerodynamic stall from which it did not recover and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at 02:14 UTC, killing all 228 passengers, aircrew and cabin crew aboard the aircraft.

While the Brazilian Navy removed the first major wreckage and two bodies from the sea within five days of the accident, the initial investigation by France's Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA) was hampered because the aircraft's black boxes were not recovered from the ocean floor until May 2011, nearly two years later.

The BEA's final report, released at a news conference on 5 July 2012, concluded that the aircraft crashed after temporary inconsistencies between the airspeed measurements – likely due to the aircraft's pitot tubes being obstructed by ice crystals – caused the autopilot to disconnect, after which the crew reacted incorrectly and ultimately led the aircraft to an aerodynamic stall from which they did not recover. The accident was the deadliest in the history of Air France. It was also the Airbus A330's second and deadliest accident, and its first in commercial passenger service.

France

France (French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a sovereign state comprising territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European part of France, called metropolitan France, extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. France spans 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and has a total population of 66.6 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. The Constitution of France establishes the state as secular and democratic, with its sovereignty derived from the people.

During the Iron Age, what is now Metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The Gauls were conquered in 51 BC by the Roman Empire, which held Gaul until 486. The Gallo-Romans faced raids and migration from the Germanic Franks, who dominated the region for hundreds of years, eventually creating the medieval Kingdom of France. France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453) strengthening French state-building and paving the way for a future centralized absolute monarchy. During the Renaissance, France experienced a vast cultural development and established the beginning of a global colonial empire. The 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots).

France (disambiguation)

France is a country in Europe.

France may also refer to:

Transport

Radio

Film and television

France (European Parliament constituency)

In European elections, France was a constituency of the European Parliament. It was replaced by subdivided constituencies in 2004. The boundaries of this constituency were the same as the member state of France. Its MEPs can be found in MEPs representing the French constituencies before 2004

Results

1979

1984

1989

1994

1999

External links