Air France jet crashed over Atlantic

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double posts...

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A welcome development:

New Air France debris found, explosion unlikely
By Miguel Lo Bianco Miguel Lo Bianco – 1 hr 39 mins ago


FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil (Reuters) – Search crews flying over the Atlantic found debris from a crashed Air France jet spread over more than 55 miles of ocean on Wednesday, reinforcing the possibility it broke up in the air.


But Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said the existence of large fuel stains in the water likely ruled out an explosion, undercutting speculation about a bomb attack.


"The existence of oil stains could exclude the possibility of a fire or explosion," he said at a news conference in Brasilia. "If we have oil stains, it means it wasn't burned."......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090603/...rance_plane_56

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Update:

Bodies of Air France flight 447 victims show no signs of mid-air explosion
By Henry Samuel in Paris
Published: 1:00PM BST 15 Jun 2009

A mid-air explosion on board the doomed Air France flight 447 has all but been ruled out as the bodies recovered from the Atlantic Ocean have no traces of burns, it has emerged.

The post mortem reports from Brazil came as Air France announced that it had upgraded all speed probes on its long-haul A330 and A340 aircraft in the wake of the June 1 crash.

An investigation into the loss of AF 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, in which an Airbus A330 jet plunged into the Atlantic with 228 people on board, has focused on the "inconsistent" readings from its airspeed sensors. Ice-clogged probes could have confused the plane's flight computers and led the pilots to fly too fast or too slowly into a storm.

Air France last week promised to replace its sensors within days. On Monday the main SNPL pilots' union said the carrier completed the upgrade of its 34-craft fleet over the weekend.

Post mortems carried out on 16 of the first 50 bodies found floating in the sea reportedly have no trace of burn marks or smoke, supporting the theory that the accident was not the result of a blast.

Their clothes had been stripped off, presumably in the rush of air as the plane fell from as high as 35,000ft.

Pilots of the Airbus A330 en route from Rio to Paris did not even have time to make a mayday call before their plane plunged into the sea.

Although an explosion is unlikely, investigators believe flight AF 447 broke up in the air because of the location of victims' bodies found in the water.

Two trails of bodies were discovered, more than 50 miles apart, which suggests the jet broke up before impact.

They had no water in the lungs - which would have indicated drowning.

In Paris, the head of Airbus's parent company said there was probably more than one reason for the crash.

"In such an accident, there is not one cause," said Louis Gallois, the head of EADS. "It's the convergence of different causes creating such an accident.

"It's essential for everybody to know what happened and we know that it's not easy. I hope we will find the black box."

Investigators have another two weeks to find the flight recorders before signals emitted by small beacons attached to the boxes start to fade.

Without them, the cause of the accident may never be fully known.

Mr Gallois was speaking ahead of today's opening of the Paris Air Show, whose 100th anniversary comes amid industry gloom. The International Air Transport Association has warned that the world's airlines will collectively lose £5.5 billion this year.

In 2009, Boeing has a net order intake of only seven jets, while Airbus has a net balance of 11 planes.

Still, both plane makers have order backlogs of around 3,500 aircraft.

Despite the depressed economic climate, organisers expect around 300,000 visitors this year, half of them from the industry, about the same number as in 2007. More than 2,000 exhibitors from 48 countries are taking part.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...explosion.html

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Update:

Air France "black box" signals located: report
REUTERS
35 mins ago

PARIS (Reuters) – Signals from the flight data recorders of the Air France airliner that crashed into the Atlantic killing all 228 people on board have been located, Le Monde newspaper said on its website on Tuesday.

An Air France spokeswoman said she could not confirm the report. The Transport Ministry and the air accident investigation office could not be reached immediately for comment.

Le Monde said French naval vessels had picked up a weak signal from the flight recorders and that a mini submarine had been dispatched on Monday to try and find the "black boxes" on the bottom of the rugged ocean floor.

The "black boxes" may contain vital information that could help explain what happened when the Airbus A330 aircraft crashed into the sea en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1...
(Writing by James Mackenzie, Editing by Ralph Gowling)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090623/...france_crash_2

[CVT]

The data in the black box is vital. However, the beacon lasts only for ~30(?) days so time is not on the searchers' side...

I am not a pilot, but the way I understand it from a pilot friend, air speed (sensor) is critical to an airplane because it prompts the pilot to add more power/speed or decrease power/slow down.

Adding speed is necessary to prevent the plane from stalling. Usually, on take off the plane occupies a lower altitude in the jet stream, because it is heavy with fuel and cannot fly "fast". But as fuel is spent it can go higher but must go faster, because the stall speed goes higher as the plane goes higher. The danger here is that if it goes too fast, the structure of the plane may be compromised. So, the pilot is always doing a balancing act, putting the plane's speed between the stall speed and what the structure can withstand. One of his metrics is the air speed, so it has to be accurate all the time. The pilot should also use his better judgment here.

8101:oops2:

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Air France: Flight 447 pilot's body retrieved
06/25/2009 | 08:24 PM

PARIS — Search crews in the mid-Atlantic have retrieved the bodies of the chief pilot of Flight 447 and a flight attendant, Air France said Thursday.

The two are among 50 bodies pulled out of the ocean in the international search for remains of the 228 victims and wreckage of the May 31 crash.

Air France, in a statement on its Web site, said the pilot and male flight attendant have been identified but did not release their names. A pilots' union named the flight captain as Frenchman Marc Dubois.

Earlier this week the international police agency Interpol said 11 of the 50 bodies retrieved had been identified: eight Brazilians, one with joint Brazilian-German citizenship, one Brazilian-Swiss and a Briton.

On Wednesday Germany's Foreign Ministry said three Germans — two men from Bavaria and a woman from Hamburg — have been identified. The ministry did not release their names.
..............
French officials said this week that military ships searching for the wreckage have detected sounds in the Atlantic depths but they are not from the flight recorders.

Two French-chartered ships are trolling a search area with a radius of 50 miles (80 kilometers), pulling U.S. Navy underwater listening devices attached to 19,700 feet (6,000 meters) of cable. A French submarine is also searching.- AP

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/165865/A...body-retrieved