intertribal | in my car to where you are, I won't make it

If Air France 447 is not recovered whole - as it most likely will not be, after 24 hours missing - it will be the twentieth worst plane crash all time, in terms of fatalities - at 228 - and the worst since November 2001. Just when we thought things were getting better. It's too early to tell, but I have a feeling that Air France 447, along with those two recent Qantas near-misses, may spur a major investigation into the Airbus A330 line and its fly-by-wire electrical systems.

Luiz Lula de Silva: "We're working with the hypothesis that there are survivors."

Nicolas Sarkozy: "I told them the truth: The chances of finding survivors are very weak." [...] [about the victims' nationalities] "That changes nothing, of course. They're victims. It doesn't matter about their nationality."

Pierre-Henri Gourgeon (CEO of Air France): "We are probably facing an air catastrophe."

Valdar Possamai (father of one of those on board): "Hope is the last thing to die, but I am conscious of the reality."