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Search for black boxes and answers continues in Air France and Yemenia Airways crashes
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Brazilian Navy officers aboard the frigate Bosisio prepare to throw a wreath into the sea Monday in memory of the victims of the Air France Flight 447 disaster. Brazilian and French searchers have recovered large chunks of debris and 51 bodies from the airplane, which crashed with 228 people on board June 1. (AP Photo/Otavio de Souza)
The search continues for the black boxes of both Air France Flight 447 and Yemenia Airways Flight 626 as investigators try to determine the cause of both fatal crashes.
It appears increasingly unlikely that either the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder for Air France Flight 447 will be recovered. The Airbus A330 jet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean northeast of Brazil on June 1, killing all 228 people aboard. The batteries in the black boxes are supposed to power their signal transmissions for about 30 days. Officials said the search for the black boxes will continue until the end of July.
Without the valuable data contained in the black boxes, investigators will have to try to piece together what happened using the evidence they have -- automated messages from the jet, wreckage, and bodies. The Brazilian military recovered 51 bodies from the sea before abandoning the effort four weeks after the mishap, saying it was no longer possible to recover any more.
Among the wreckage recovered was a huge section of the jet’s tailfin. From this and other debris recovered, investigators with the French Bureau of Investigations and Analysis have come to some preliminary conclusions, which they presented in a news conference Thursday.
The most notable aspect of the report was the conclusion that the jet did not break up in the air, but most likely broke apart when it hit the water, belly first.
“Visual examination shows that the plane was not destroyed in flight,” according to the report, which went on to state that the jet struck the ocean surface with a “strong vertical acceleration.”
The report noted that 24 automated messages were sent by the aircraft between 2:10 and 2:15 a.m. local time. Some of these reported inconsistencies with the speed data being reported by the jet’s speed sensors, called Pitot probes. Some aviation experts have speculated that a malfunction of the Pitot probes, possibly caused by icing, could have caused the aircraft to fly too slowly for weather conditions, leading to a stall and a dive that pilots could not reverse.
The report said the jet was proceeding according to the flight plan at 2:10 a.m.
“The weather situation was in conformity with that which one encounters in June in the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone,” the report observed.
There was a cluster of cumulonimbus clouds on the jet’s route that could have caused “marked turbulence,” the report noted, adding that several planes flying in the area before and after Flight 447 adjusted their routes and/or altitude to avoid the clouds.
One aspect of the report drawing media scrutiny is its assertion that there was no handover of air traffic control for the flight from Brazil to Senegal. At 2:01 a.m., according to the report, the crew of the aircraft attempted for the third time, without success, to make contact with air traffic controllers in Dakar, Senegal.
Friday, Brazilian authorities released a statement defending its air traffic controllers, saying Senegal was notified of the plane’s position and imminent arrival in Senegal’s area of jurisdiction and that Dakar had confirmed the receipt of the information.
Neither Brazil or Senegal issued an alarm about the missing aircraft. The first alerts that the plane was missing, according to the report, came from air traffic control in Madrid and Brest, France between 8 and 8:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, the search continues for the black boxes of Yemenia Airways Flight 626, which crashed Tuesday in the Indian Ocean near the Comoros Islands.
According to Reuters, an American search team has recovered a large part of the Airbus A310’s wreckage. The jet’s black boxes, however, remain to be found.
The jet was carrying 153 people from Paris to the Comoros capital city, Moroni. Only one survivor was rescued, a teenage girl.
There were conflicting reports Saturday about whether or not Yemenia Airways had suspended service on the Paris to Moroni route. Friday, Comorian protesters blocked an entrance to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport.
For more info: Experts says lightning unlikely as cause of Air France crash, Yemeni airliner crashes in Indian Ocean
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