Friday, June 12, 2009
Air France CEO: Don't assume sensors caused crash !
"I am not convinced that the sensors are the cause of the accident," said Air France Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.
Still, he said, the airline will continue with a program, begun just days before the crash, to replace the sensors on its Airbus A330s, the same type of plane that crashed June 1.
The sensors on the doomed plane hadn't yet been replaced, he said.
"Airbus and the European Aviation Safety Agency maintain that the A330/A340s are safe with any one of the three types of existing sensors," Gourgeon told reporters in France.
Air Francehas promised that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless at least two of its three Pitot tubes have been replaced. The tubes are an instrument contained in the speed-sensing system.
Gourgeon cautioned journalists that "as for the assumptions made by some of the media, they are pure speculation." He did not elaborate.
On Wednesday, a French newsmagazine reported that two of the passengers on the flight had names linked to Islamic terrorism.
L'Express said identification of the two people was not complete because French intelligence services did not yet have their birthdates. The names, L'Express also said, could also be "simple homonyms."
An official with the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center said the names are not on any U.S. watch lists.
"We have no information that would confirm people on our consolidated watch list were on that Air France flight, at least not as of right now. We could always receive additional information," the official said. "There's nothing to suggest at this point that there were people on the flight we were keeping an eye on."
Terrorism has not been ruled out as a possible cause of the crash.
Investigating the crash, which killed all 228 people aboard, will be "long and difficult" given the location in the sea, hundreds of miles off the coast of Brazil.
Flight 447 had been flying from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, when it went down in stormy weather.
"Analysis of the initial results of the searches being carried out may give us an indication of the circumstances of the catastrophe," Gourgeon told reporters. "Various scenarios could then be built by the experts. In addition to which, we hope to recover the flight recorders."
The flight recorders from Flight 447 are now the subject of a massive international search because they could hold the answer to the cause of the crash.
A French nuclear submarine and other vessels now searching for the recorders are focusing on its underwater locator beacon -- a device that sends acoustic pulses, or "pings," to searchers.
The U.S. Navy is contributing two high-tech acoustic devices to locate the pings that will be attached to French tug boats and can search to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters).
The batteries that power the locator beacon are designed to last for about 30 days, though the boxes are designed to keep the contents safe for much longer.
While the wreckage is believed to be about 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) deep, amid underwater mountains and mixed in with tons of sea trash, experts have said they are confident the recorders can be found.
Airspeed sensors like those on the downed plane are susceptible to icing in high-altitude storms. They can affect the stability of an aircraft, particularly if it is on autopilot; one wrong reading can make the autopilot shift the plane into a wrong direction or wrong speed.
Interpol, the international police organization, said Tuesday it is helping to coordinate efforts by a number of countries to identify the crash victims, who came from 32 countries.
"In any major tragedy, a coordinated effort by the international community will significantly speed up the victim recovery and identification process and Interpol is uniquely placed to provide this support to each of our member countries involved," Secretary-General Ronald Noble said.Thursday, June 11, 2009
Total of 41 bodies recovered from Air France 447 crash
FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil -- Forty-one bodies have been recovered from the crash of Air France Flight 447, the Brazilian Navy Command and Aeronautical Command said Tuesday.
Sixteen bodies pulled from the Atlantic Ocean Tuesday were taken to Fernando de Noronha for transportation Wednesday afternoon by helicopter to the air base in Recife, Brazil.
The 25 bodies previously found were put aboard a Brazilian frigate.
Searches for the remaining bodies will continue overnight, the navy and aeronautical command said in a written statement.
The Airbus A330 crashed in the Atlantic Ocean June 1 en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, carrying 228 passengers and crew.
The first bodies were recovered about 320 kilometers (200 miles) northwest of the Brazilian archipelago of Saint Peter and Saint Paul; Tuesday's recoveries were 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. It was not clear whether the bodies had drifted in the 1-2 knot currents or whether their separation suggested that the jet may have broken apart in the air.
Meanwhile, the French, who are leading the investigation, were increasing their naval efforts. The nuclear submarine Emeraude was expected to reach the search area Wednesday to search for wreckage, including the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. And the French sent two tugs towing 40 tons of recovery equipment, a surveillance ship and a ship equipped for amphibious operations.
The United States is also sending equipment to help with the search.
Brazilian authorities said the plane debris will be taken to France for investigation but the bodies would undergo forensic tests in Recife.
The cause of the crash is not known, but investigators are looking at the possible role of airspeed sensors known as Pitot tubes, among other factors.
Air France has agreed to replace the sensors on its Airbus A330 and A340 jets, a pilots' union said Tuesday.
The airline said Saturday that it began replacing its fleet's sensors last month.
Another Air France pilots' union, ALTER, has advised its pilots not to fly planes until their Pitot tubes are replaced. ALTER, the smallest of three Air France pilots' unions, would not say what percentage of the carrier's pilots it represents.
The biggest union, SNPL, said Tuesday it has accepted Air France's assurances that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless at least two of its three Pitot tubes have been replaced.
Union spokesman Eric Derivry added that there is no indication that the Pitot tubes caused the accident.
Air France said over the weekend that it began to notice in May of last year that Pitot tubes sometimes briefly iced up at high altitude on A330s and A340s. That caused "a loss of airspeed data," according to the airline -- that is, the pilots didn't know the plane's speed.
Air France decided to replace all its probes starting April 27, following laboratory tests earlier in the year, the airline said. That is the program the pilots say the airline has promised to complete within days.
The location of the crash has not been determined, because ocean currents have moved the bodies and debris.
The ocean depth where the debris and bodies have been found varies, but averages about 3,000 meters (nearly 9,900 feet) deep, according to the University of New Hampshire/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association Joint Hydrographic Center. The search area covers 200,000 square km (77,220 square miles), nearly the size of Romania, Brazilian officials said.
Brazilian officials emphasized Monday that finding bodies was their main priority. The French are in charge of finding the voice and data recorders.
Fourteen aircraft -- 12 Brazilian and two French -- were participating, along with five Brazilian ships and one French frigate. The U.S. Navy will contribute two high-tech acoustic devices to listen underwater for the emergency beacons that are attached to the voice and data recorders.
The "towed pinger locators," which help search for emergency beacons on downed aircraft to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet -- will be placed aboard two French tugs that are part of the search efforts, the official said.