Wreckage from Air France jet found in Atlantic

BBC ^

[Sub-Driver]

Wreckage from Air France jet found in Atlantic

Wreckage from an Air France jet lost over the Atlantic nearly two years ago with 288 people on board has been found, French investigators say.

With the cause of the crash still unknown, a fourth attempt to locate the plane's voice and data recorders got under way last month.

Searchers located wreckage during the past 24 hours, investigators in Paris said, without giving details.

Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris came down in a storm on 1 June 2009.

A French judge recently filed preliminary manslaughter charges against Air France over the crash.

Airbus, the maker of the jet, says no one can know for sure how the crash occurred unless the so-called "black boxes" are found.

The search has been financed jointly by Air France and Airbus. It involves dives to depths of up to 4,000m (13,120ft) with the use of special robots to examine the ocean floor between Brazil and West Africa.

[Cementjungle]

I have no idea... I was just curious as to why they’re charging the airline with manslaughter when they also say they don’t know the cause of the crash. I must be missing something.

[Blueflag]

Gotta disagree only because other crews handled similar failures successfully. Perhaps unfair to call it error, but this Airbus crew did not no execute what others did ... BUT we don’t know that. It is only inferred forensically.

I saw the Nova report and came away from that with the impression that the crew did not retain control of the plane when they could/should have, and others have.

I never fly over 150 KIAS or over 10000’ ASL so I can’t criticize. I would just really like to know what happened.

[Blueflag]

Both the icing conditions and the failure of heated pitots were not what pilots encounter on a daily basis. Thus atypical.

Rare occurrences = atypical.

The pitot issue DID happen too many times and thus the AD to replace them.

Btw, I did watch the Nova video. We don’t *know* what happened so keep in mind they may have indeed flown into the Q-corner.

I hope the wreckage speaks volumes.

[Hulka]

I understand your point.

We shall see if more facts come out. . .

[XHogPilot]

It took a French criminal investigation less than 2 weeks to find the wreckage. Accident investigations and criminal investigations are two very separate events. Accident investigations look for cause with the sole purpose of preventing future accidents. French criminal investigations determine cupability and liability. It seems that the previous (accident investigation) search 2 years ago may have been conducted in a half hearted manner so as to avoid providing evidence for a future criminal investigation.

More info on the discovery here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8425600/Air-France-plane-wreckage-found.html

[Dallas59]

A bet as to who downed it...