Posted on 04/03/2011 9:47:59 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
PARIS (AP) — Underwater search teams have found pieces of an Air France plane that crashed in the Atlantic in 2009, killing all 228 people on board, French investigators said Sunday.
(snip)
The French air accident investigation agency B.E.A. said in a statement on Sunday night that a team aboard the expedition ship Alucia had found pieces of the plane in the previous 24 hours. The agency did not identify what parts of the plane were found, or where.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Unfortunate the box hasnt been found. Always figured this aircraft broke up in mid-flight but now they say it fell belly flat on the ocean. Must have been one hell of a thunderstorm
I saw the documentary on NOVA and it seemed reasonable that supercooled water overwhelming the pitot tube heaters was the key event. Maintining proper airspeed was also extremely challenging in that event....
From wiki......
Media
On 30 May 2010, BBC Two in the United Kingdom broadcast the documentary “Lost: The Mystery of Flight 447”,[171] a one hour documentary detailing an independent investigation into the crash employing the skills of an expert pilot, an expert accident investigator, an aviation meteorologist and an aircraft structural engineer. Using the available evidence and information, without the black boxes, a critical chain of events was postulated: flying into an immense thunderstorm which had been hidden on the aircraft weather radar by a smaller nearer storm.
reducing aircraft speed to anticipate impending turbulence.
configuring the aircraft to avoid a stall by trimming aircraft pitch with the elevators, but not noticing that the autothrust system reduced aircraft speed (without corresponding thrust lever movement).
simultaneous failure of all three pitot tubes due to supercooled water very rapidly forming ice.
aircrew being unable to interpret a large number of flight deck failure alerts caused by the loss of air data.
suffering a catastrophic loss of altitude due to a stall.
falling uncontrollably to the sea and breaking up on impact.
On 1 June 2010, exactly one year after the crash of Air France Flight 447, it was announced that, in the United States, there would be a Nova TV series science/documentary episode about the accident. The documentary was broadcast on 16 February 2011.[172][173]
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.
Plenty of wreckage and some bodies were found at the time, just not the recorders.
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