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Air France #447 MISSING over the Atlantic!


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  • 2 weeks later...

This morning a swedish tabloid claims that they have found the black box from Flight 447.

At least that's what the title claims. Reading on it's stated that one of the subs involved in the search has picked up signals belived to come from one, or both, of the flight recorders.

Can't find anything else written in a language I can understand, but the article states "Le Monde" as the source of the information.

If anyone here understand french I'm guessing this is the article they are refering too.

http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2009/06/23/les-boites-noires-de-l-airbus-rio-paris-reperees_1210102_3224.html

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Translation :

The inquiry into reasons of the accident of A330 of Air France assuring the theft Rio-Paris, which disappeared on the June 1st in Atlantic off the Brazilian coasts, is it going to advance in next days? Perhaps, if the black boxes of the plane
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  • 2 weeks later...

Air France has made a statement today that there was no in-flight breakup - they believe the AC was intact when it hit the water.

 

Even though the 30-day "certified" pinger life has passed, the search for the recorders will continue for another ten days.

 

John

 

EDIT:

 

More - it seems to be coming in bits and pieces...

 

LE BOURGET, France - A French investigator says speed sensors were a factor but were not the cause of the crash of Air France flight 447.

 

Alain Bouillard, leading the investigation into the June 1 crash for the French accident investigation agency BEA, says the sensors, called Pitot tubes, were not the only factor.

 

He says "it is an element but not the cause."

 

JDA

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  • 2 weeks later...

From AVWebFlash...

 

Air France Investigation Enters Next Phase

 

Multiple submarines remain in the search for sunken debris, but they will no longer be actively "listening" for emergency signals from the recorders aboard Air France Flight 447. It's been more than 40 days since the Airbus A330-220, with 228 aboard, crashed in the Atlantic ocean while en route out of Rio de Janeiro for Paris -- the aircraft's flight data and cockpit voice recorders are designed to emit signal for 30 days. "All is not lost," Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, director of Air France-KLM told the Le Figaro last week. Brazil's military last month called off the search for floating debris and bodies having recovered 51 bodies (including that of one of the flight's pilots), some 640 pieces of aircraft wreckage and not a single inflated life vest. Examination of wreckage has led investigators to believe the aircraft broke up after striking the water in a fairly flat attitude at high speed and on track with its route.

 

With investigators citing the aircraft's own automated reports of inconsistent air data, an Air France pilots' union Wednesday accused safety authorities of failing to prevent the crash. The unions published a letter Wednesday stating that agencies had failed to act on information that certain pitot tubes fitted to certain Airbus aircraft were known to have faults.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Probe Finds Airspeed Sensors Failed on at Least 12 U.S. Flights

 

I don't know if this makes it any more certain that the pitots were "the" cause, quite possibly they were not, but it does further confirm that they were prone to problems. It may be something as simple as a too-low wattage heater or that the placement and configuration of the heater left some portion of the probe subject to icing up.

 

John

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,538122,00.html

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  • 2 weeks later...

French Investigators End Search for Flight 447 Black Boxes

 

It's a sad thing, because absent the data in the boxes, what remains is largely educated guesswork and no one can be sure what brought down AF 447. It is to be hoped that another plane load of people don't have to die in order for Airbus to detect a latent problem. There may not be one... but there may be too. We just don't have the data to know.

 

John

 

 

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  • 7 months later...

New search starting for Air France black boxes

 

 

There was a time when the US SOSUS system (seabed listening devices) could hear a Russian submarine sailor break wind and from the sound analysis, get not only the location, depth, speed and heading, but what region of the Soviet Union the cabbage came from.
 
OK, I'm exaggerating a little, but the wreckage of the USS Scorpion was located based on very faint SOSUS anomalies. If 447 made enough noise hitting the surface or the bottom, there may have been a detectable event on the SOSUS recorders.
 
I sincerely hope the CVR and FDR are located and retrieved - it's important. We'll never understand the reasons for this crash unless they are.
 
It would be interesting to know how Airbus and Air France feel about this. Potentially, either or both could lose a lot of money if the cause of the crash is ever determined with enough certainty to fuel the lawsuits of the victim's survivors.
 
John

 

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Would the tapes in the CVR and FDR still be in-tact after all this time I wonder?

 

I think they would be, Rob. I suspect that the recorders may not use tape at all any more - probably something more like a hard disk or flash memory I would think. In any case I believe the process includes rinsing in fresh water and drying carefully before applying any power if the device has been in water.

 

I understand the sea bottom there amounts to a very rugged mountain range, so even if they're in the right area this is far from a sure thing.

 

John

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  • 1 month later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Airbus gives new warning on speed sensors

 

"Airbus said Tuesday it has discovered in some cases two Pitot tubes can give matching, incorrect speed data, which could lead pilots to re-engage autopilot prematurely. Airbus spokesman Justin Dubon said the warning advises pilots not to re-engage automatic pilot following questionable readings from airspeed indicators until they have double-checked the readings.

 

Pitots are suspected of a role in the June 1, 2009, Rio-to-Paris crash that came during a strong thunderstorm over the Atlantic."

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  • 2 months later...

Air France Faces Charges Over 2009 Crash

 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/18/air-france-faces-charges-200-crash/?test=latestnews

 

"A French judge has filed preliminary charges against Air France over a 2009 crash that killed all 228 people aboard a jet that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean."

 

"...a day after filing similar charges against Airbus, the maker of the doomed jet."

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