Sudden electric problems caused more than the crash of Air France 447 into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009. Another Airbus went down off shore from Yemen on July 3, 2009, this one also with suspicious electrical problems.

I felt like I'd been electrocuted

The child survivor of the Yemenia jet crash which killed 152 today spoke of her ordeal as she flew back to France for an emotional reunion with her father. Bahia Bakari told a French government minister that she felt something 'like electricity' before the crash. 'She says instructions were given to passengers and that then she felt something like electricity, as if she had been a bit electrocuted. And suddenly there was this big sound. She found herself in the water.

The plane went down in high winds, but there no lightning was reported, and in any case lightning in and of itself will not cause electrical problems. Airbus 310 was clearly flooded by an electromagnetic pulse, causing the plane to lose control and plunge into the sea, just as Air France 447 had done. Why just the Airbus? Is there something about its structure that makes it susceptible?

Indeed, approximately 15 years ago Airbus went over to a fly-by-wire control system, which would infer (but no guarantees) that in the event of an absolute electrical-electronic failure neither pilot, nor co-pilot could regain control over moving wing surfaces or rudder control. Although the root cause of the crash was supposed to be altimeter misreadings, reading between the lines would suggest there is a lot more than what was stated.