At just after half past 1 in the morning on the 1st of June 2009, An Airbus A330-203 cruises at 35,000 feet above the Southern Atlantic Ocean. The aircraft departed from Rio de Janeiro at 1030 pm and is about 3 hours into its 10 and a half flight to Paris Charles De Gaulle in France. On board are 216 passengers and 12 crew members. The Airbus has just passed a navigation waypoint known as INTOL which sits about 300 miles off the Brazilian coast. A navigation waypoint is a known reference point with a given set of coordinates and is useful for both the air traffic controllers and pilots to monitor the progress of an aircraft, especially when radar coverage is not available. The captain of the aircraft makes contact with the Atlantico Area Control Centre, responsible for controlling air traffic in this particular region of the Southern Atlantic. The captain advises Atlantico that they have just passed the INTOL waypoint and their next waypoint will be SALPU in about 15 minutes, follow...