PLANE DISAPPEARS OVER ATLANTIC OCEAN

Jun 1, 2009

VAST SEARCH OF ATLANTIC OCEAN FOR AIR FRANCE JET
228 ON BOARD FLIGHT FROM BRAZIL TO PARIS

An Air France jet with 228 people on a flight to Paris vanished over the Atlantic Ocean after flying into towering thunderstorms and sending an automated message that the electrical system had failed. A vast search began Monday, but all aboard were feared killed.

Military aircraft scrambled out to the center of the Atlantic, far from the coasts of Brazil and West Africa, and France sought U.S. satellite help to find the wreckage. The first military ship wasn't expected to reach the area where the plane disappeared until Wednesday.If there are no survivors, it would be the world's worst aviation disaster since 2001.The official Agencia Brasil news agency on Monday quoted Brazilian Air Force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral as saying that a commercial airplane pilot saw what appeared to be fire on the ocean near the route taken by the Air France plane.

"There is information that the pilot of a TAM aircraft saw several orange points on the ocean while flying over the region ... where the Air France plane disappeared," Amaral said, referring to the Brazilian airline TAM. "After arriving in Brazil, the pilot found out about the disappearance (of the Air France plane) and said that he thought those points on the ocean were fire."

The 4-year-old Airbus A330 left Rio Sunday night with 216 passengers and 12 crew members on board, said company spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand. Most of the passengers were Brazilian and French, but 32 nations in all were represented, including two Americans.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Materialistic men sometimes ask why God has created the material world for the suffering of the living entities. The material creation is certainly meant for the suffering of the conditioned souls, who are part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead

Both the Lord and the living entity, being qualitatively spirit soul, have the tendency for peaceful enjoyment, but when the part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead unfortunately wants to enjoy independently, without Krishna, he is put into the material world, where he begins his life as Brahmā and is gradually degraded to the status of an ant or a worm in stool. This is called manah shashthānīndriyāni prakriti-sthāni karshati [Bg. 15.7]. There is a great struggle for existence because the living entity conditioned by material nature is under nature's full control (prakriteh kriyamānāni gunaih karmāni sarvaśah [Bg. 3.27]). Because of his limited knowledge, however, the living entity thinks he is enjoying in this material world. Manah shashthānīndriyāni prakriti-sthāni karshati [Bg. 15.7]. He is actually under the full control of material nature, but still he thinks himself independent (ahańkāra-vimūdhātmā kartāham iti manyate [Bg. 3.27]).

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"El Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 9 - Chapter 24 - Verse 58"