Though one bullet found its way into the wing of the airliner, the fuel tank was not ruptured and no injuries were reported in the drama. As startling as this heist seems, airport robberies are not unheard of in Brazil, and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro airports in particular have suffered from rather high crime rates in recent years. No, not because they were under the threat of attack, but because they had a complete communications failure. The French air force said officials at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport requested help last Tuesday after losing contact with an Air France Boeing 747 traveling from Miami with 275 passengers. The air force sent a Mirage 2000 fighter up to find and then escort the 747 to a safe landing.
Early reports are the jumbo lost communications after being struck by lightning.
Makes you wonder why airlines don't equip their cockpits with inexpensive handheld com radios for just such scenarios. A Cessna 170 pilot flying two passengers from Washington state to Williams Lake, B.C., last Wednesday radioed that he had become disoriented in bad weather, was low on fuel and was contemplating using a local highway to land. Alerted to the situation, police cleared one of the only straight lengths of highway and hoped for the best as the disoriented pilot circled somewhere in the cloud-shrouded mountains between Squamish and the town of Whistler. Luckily, the 170 was intercepted by a private helicopter and a B.C. Air Ambulance helicopter which had been dispatched to clean up whatever mess might have been created if the aircraft had an abrupt encounter with the local countryside. Both helicopters established visual and radio contact with the aircraft and guided it through a mountain pass to a small airport where the 170 terminated its flight much less eventfully.