AF447 Plane Accident

[xxMATTGxx]

Air France memo to pilots says it's replacing air-speed-sensing instruments in Airbus jets

An Air France memo to its pilots Friday about the crash of Flight 447 said the airline is replacing instruments that help measure airspeed on all its medium- and long-haul Airbus jets.

Investigators have focused on incorrect speed readings as one potential factor in the crash.

With Brazil and France disagreeing about whether pieces of the jet have even been found in the Atlantic, investigators are using the last messages sent by the plane to determine the cause and try to avoid future disasters.

Air France declined to comment on the memo obtained by The Associated Press, saying it was for pilots only.

[xxMATTGxx]

The Air France jet which went missing over the Atlantic sent 24 error messages before it is believed to have crashed, French investigators say.

The messages came as the plane's systems broke down one by one, said Alain Bouillard, head of France's aviation accident investigation bureau.

French weather experts said there was no evidence the plane, carrying 228 people, hit an "exceptional" storm.

The Airbus A330 vanished en-route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on Monday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8086860.stm

Interesting...

[xxMATTGxx]

France24: Investigators said the AF 447 sent 24 messages in less than five minutes before it disappeared. A bomb cannot be ruled out.

In less than 5 minutes, bloody hell!

[lick]

It's the Bermuda Triangle!

[xxMATTGxx]

Air force officials say they have found bodies and debris from Air France flight 447 which crashed in the Atlantic.

Brazilian air force officials say that a ship has found two bodies and debris from the Air France jet which crashed in the Atlantic.

DEBRIS FOUND IN THE ATLANTIC INCLUDES BLUE CHAIR AND LEATHER BRIEFCASE CONTAINING AIR FRANCE TICKET.

Bodies and debris have been found from the Air France plane which went missing over the Atlantic last Monday, the Brazilian air force has said.

The remains were taken from the water at 0814 Brazilian time (1114 GMT), said spokesman Jorge Amaral.

Experts on human remains are on their way to examine the find.

All 228 passengers and crew on board AF 447 are believed to have been killed when the plane disappeared during its flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

"We confirm the recovery from the water debris and bodies from the Air France plane," Col Amaral said at a news conference in the northern city of Recife.

"We can't give more information without confirming what we have."

Updated news.

He later added that two male bodies had been found, as well as objects linked to passengers known to be on the flight, including a suitcase with a plane ticket.

A seat was also found, but there has been no confirmation that it was from the flight.

The remains were picked up some 640 km (400 miles) northeast of the islands of Fernando de Noronha, off Brazil's northern coast.

Correspondents say that much of the search effort so far has been focused on finding flight data recorders, which have sonar beacons - or "pingers" - attached to them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8087303.stm

[lick]

Updated news.




http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8087303.stm

I wonder if it is true this time.

[xxMATTGxx]

I wonder if it is true this time.

The other one was true. It just wasn't items from the AFR flight. However when you find bodies and a suitcase/briefcase with an "Air France ticket" inside. It starts ringing bells.

[Immenseman]

Brazilian search crews have found bodies and debris from the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic, an air force spokesman has said. Skip related content
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Spokesman Jorge Amaral said that the first bodies from the crash were found early on Saturday morning.
Mr Amaral said: "This morning at 8:14am, we confirmed the rescue from the water of pieces and bodies that belonged to the Air France flight."
Among the debris retrieved was a seat with a serial number that matched the missing flight, a rucksack, and a case with an Air France ticket inside, rescue officials said.
Brazil's air force has been scouring a swathe of the Atlantic about 680 miles northeast of Brazil's coast since Monday's crash, which killed all 228 people on board.
Several Brazilian navy ships have also arrived in the area, but fears have grown that many bodies sank.
It was the the world's deadliest air disaster since 2001 and the worst in Air France's 75-year history.
Meanwhile, investigators have said that the autopilot on the flight was not working.
Those on board included five Britons, 12 crewmembers, a baby and seven children.
Pre-crash signals from Flight 447, which went down en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris last Sunday, showed the autopilot was not working, French investigators said.
Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the French agency leading the crash investigation, said it was not clear if the pilots switched it off or it stopped working because it received conflicting airspeed readings.
Plane manufacturer Airbus said the probe found the flight received inconsistent readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.
Meteorologists said the Air France jet entered an unusual storm with 100mph updrafts that acted as a vacuum, sucking water up from the ocean.
The moist air rushed up to the plane's high altitude, where it quickly froze in minus-40 degree temperatures. The updrafts also would have created dangerous turbulence.
Investigators are still searching a zone of several hundred square miles for debris from the crash, after earlier reports that wreckage had been found in the Atlantic were found to be wrong.

[xxMATTGxx]

Bit of more info on the recorders:

Flight recorders

The items were the first to be definitely linked to the plane, nearly six days after the crash.


Some debris thought to be from the plane was spotted earlier in the week, but items recovered proved not to be linked to it.

Correspondents say that much of the search effort so far has been focused on finding flight data recorders, which have sonar beacons - or "pingers" - attached to them.

But French officials say there was no guarantee the beacons were still attached to the flight recorders, and they may have been separated in the impact of the crash.

The officials do not know what triggered the plane's problems, but it was flying through an area of thunder storms and turbulence.

They said it sent 24 error messages minutes before it crashed.

On Friday, French Defence Minister Herve Morin said a French submarine was being sent to join in the search since it had sonar equipment that could help locate the airliner's flight data recorders.

The US is also sending specialised listening equipment.

[BeanEgg]

Bit of more info on the recorders:

Apparently the sonar beacons only work for 30 days after. Hopefully they'll find them before.