http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-04/04/c_13812811.htm
France says important wreckage of crashed AF 447 located English.news.cn 2011-04-04 17:30:15 FeedbackPrintRSS Debris of the missing Air France flight 447, recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, arrives at Recife's port in this June 14, 2009 file photo. France has discovered what appears to be part of an Air France passenger aircraft that crashed in the Atlantic almost two years ago, accident investigators said on April 3, 2011. A deep-sea salvage vessel located pieces of a plane in the past 24 hours and French experts believe they come from the missing A330-200 passenger plane, the BEA accident investigation authority said. Air France-KLM was placed under investigation on April 1, 2011 by a French court for involuntary manslaughter over the 2009 crash between Rio and Paris which killed 228 people, the airline's lawyer Fernand Garnault said. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) PARIS, April 4 (Xinhua) -- French Transport Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet told local media on Monday that "an important part" of the crashed Air France flight 447 was located, which posed the hope to find recording boxes of the doomed plane killing all 228 lives on board in 2009. It was a "large part" and "important part" of the Airbus A330, "in one piece," the minister said on local radio France Inter. He added this discovery provided hopes to locate the "black boxes" soon but didn't elaborate which part of the debris is. On Sunday night, the French air accident investigation agency BEA said in a statement that new pieces believed to come from the Air France flight plane that crashed in the Atlantic in June 2009 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris were located. The "wreckage containing bodies," according to France 24, is a surprising outcome after three phases of expensive searching attempts for recorders were proved in vain. Still, the BEA didn't identify what part of the plane was found, saying further details will come later. === 2 === http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2011/03/19/af447-and-the-french-pros ecutor/ AF447 and the French prosecutor March 19, 2011 - 2:01 pm, by Ben Sandilands One critical question stands out above all others concerning the Air France disaster in the mid Atlantic on June 1, 2009, which claimed the lives of all 228 people aboard a flight between Rio de Janeiro and Paris. Why did the Airbus A330-200 stick resolutely to a course which appeared to go straight through a towering thunderstorm? This question is no less important now that the Paris investigating magistrate Sylvie Zimmerman has as previously anticipated placed parties in Airbus and Air France under judicial inquiry for alleged manslaughter. By Monday (Australian time) a second search of the crash zone seafloor is expected to begin for the two flight data recorders. And, from the very outset, the French air accident investigator has said that while the well known problems of iced up speed measuring pitots on the A330 were a contributing factor to the disaster they were not the main cause. The investigator has not said directly what that main cause was, but in following its two interim reports and other commentary word by word, the unusual thing about AF447 was that other flights crossing through the same storm zone that night were actively diverting around the most severe storm cells, while the Air France flight didn't seem to deviate at all. There have been some very harrowing cases of iced up pitots on the A330 causing unreliable air speed indications and a significant but relatively short control of flight issue for pilots, with very well reported cases concerning a Northwest flight and two Air Caraibes flights. None of these encounters with a control issue caused by two or three of the three pitots being temporarily blocked actually threatened to cause the destruction of the airliner. The problem seems to be have resolved since AF447 by the replacement of one type of pitot with another. But late last year Air France also partially released the findings of an independent safety audit of the carrier that, in the public disclosure, included enhanced flight following or tracking of its aircraft and improved pilot 'culture' in the cockpit. There are several important elements to the AF447 disaster that may be vital to the French prosecution (should it proceed to trials) and the French inquiry. 1. What was said between the pilots and the operations centre in Paris before the flight departed? 2. What was said in the Air France emergency response unit during the night before a press conference at CDG in which the airline seem keen to urge electrical failure and thunderstorm activity as a major factor in the loss of the jet, and, of course 3. What do the voice recorder and data recorder reveal, should they be found in a readable condition? ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [email protected]. -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [email protected] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Unsubscribe: [email protected] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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