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Autopsies have revealed fractures in the legs, hips and arms of Air France disaster victims, injuries that — coupled with the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic — strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air, experts said Wednesday. With more than 400 bits of debris recovered from the ocean's surface, the top French investigator expressed optimism about discovering what brought down Flight 447, but he also called the conditions — far from land in very deep waters — "one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation." French investigators are beginning to form "an...

Autopsies have revealed fractures in the legs, hips and arms of Air France crash victims, injuries that, along with the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic, strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air, experts said Wednesday. With more than 400 bits of debris recovered from the ocean's surface, the top French investigator expressed hope that investigators would learn what brought down Flight 447, but he also called the conditions "one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation." French investigators are beginning to form "an image that is progressively less fuzzy," Paul-Louis Arslanian, who...

Flight AF 447 on 01 june 2009 A330-200, registered F-GZCP During the third Press Conference that was held on 17 June on the progress of the investigation into the accident to flight AF 447, the BEA presented the sea search operations that are under way. It contains a map of the locations of the airplane debris, including the fin, that were recovered from the surface of the sea. This debris field corresponds to a relatively small area with a drift towards the north. A targeted undersea search area has been established based on the position of the parts recovered –...

Autopsies revealed fractures in the legs, hips and arms of Air France disaster victims, a Brazilian official said Wednesday. Experts said those injuries — and the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic — strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air.

Most of the 16 bodies which have been examined in preliminary stages of the probe were found naked or with minimal clothing, suggesting the wind may have removed the garments.

Air France plane broke up over 'number of minutes' New evidence suggests the Air France jet which crashed into the Atlantic with 228 on-board broke up over a number of minutes, rather than in one catastrophic incident. By Henry Samuel in Paris 11 Jun 2009 The Brazilian Air Force said bodies from flight AF 447 had been picked up from locations more than 50 miles apart – supporting the theory that the plane did not simply plummet into the ocean. A reanalysis of the plane's last automatic transmissions also indicates that many parts had malfunctioned before it disappeared, and that...

An Italian woman who arrived late for the Air France plane flight that crashed in the Atlantic last week has been killed in a car accident.

PARIS (AFP) — Airbus on Thursday denied a press report that it was considering grounding all long-haul A330 and A340 jets to change airspeed sensors after an Air France plane crashed into the Atlantic. The French newspaper Le Figaro said in its Thursday edition that the aircraft manufacturer "does not rule out grounding its fleet of 1,000 A330s and A340s to change the (speed) sensors." An Airbus spokesman denied the report, telling AFP "This is wrong." The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) "has issued a press release that all A330s and other aircraft are safe to operate," he said, adding:...

Two radical Muslims identified on crashed Air France flight DEBKAfile Special Repor June 10, 2009, 9:40 PM (GMT+02:00) The day after DEBKAfile's counter-terror sources' revelation of Tuesday, June 9, that French security was going through the doomed Air France flight's passenger list for suspected terror links, the Paris weekly L'Express reported a link had been found. French security DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure) agents dispatched to Brazil identified two names on the passenger list which also appear also on highly-classified documents listing radical Muslims considered a threat to France. This link to the air tragedy was described as...

Terror Names Linked To Doomed Flight AF 447 3:58pm UK, Wednesday June 10, 2009 Peter Allen, in Paris Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged. Debris from Air France flight AF 447 has been recovered from the Atlantic French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31.

Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on board the Air France flight that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board, it has emerged. French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31. Agents are now trying to establish dates of birth for the two dead passengers, and family connections. There is a possibility that the name similarities are simply a "macabre coincidence," the source added, but the revelation is still being "taken very seriously." A source working...

Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on board the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged. French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31st. Flight AF447 crashed in mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm. While it is certain that there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out. Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), the...

June 10, 2009 -- Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on board the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged. French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 31st. Flight AF447 crashed in mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.While it is certain that there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out. Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la...

As attention shifts to the pitot tubes that provide air-speed data, Airbus designers must be doing a lot of soul searching right now Engineering design decisions are viewed by the unknowing as precise, no-compromise conclusions. If that were so all of us would feel better about our design choices. But in the real world, decisions are always made under the watchful eye of the accountants. So compromises are made and we live with the consequences. Except when people die. Then the binary nature of designing complex devices hits home: good decision, good result. Bad decision, bad result. Maybe really bad....

Divers yesterday recovered a large tail section of the Air France jet that crashed off the coast of Brazil nine days ago killing all 228 on board, including five Britons. It is one of the biggest pieces of wreckage yet found as the search continues for the Airbus 330's black boxes to solve the mystery of what brought the plane down en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. By yesterday, Brazilian and French military ships had recovered 16 bodies from Flight 447, which is thought to have broken up over the Atlantic after sending messages signalling electrical failures and...

RECIFE, Brazil – A large tail section of a jetliner bearing Air France's trademark red and blue stripes was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean Monday, helping narrow the hunt for "black boxes" that could explain what brought down Flight 447. And some high-tech help is on the way — two U.S. Navy devices capable of picking up the flight recorders' emergency beacons far below on the ocean floor. What caused the Airbus A330-200 to plunge into the middle of the ocean on May 31 with 228 people on board might not be known until those black boxes are found....

FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil -- Seventeen bodies have been recovered from the Atlantic where an Air France jet came down a week ago as French submarines head to the remote zone in search of the black boxes. The remains, and dozens of structural components from the plane also plucked from the waves, were expected to arrive in the Brazilian archipelago Fernando de Noronha on Tuesday. From there the bodies would be flown to the mainland coastal city of Recife for identification using dental records and DNA from relatives, air force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz told reporters late Sunday in...

In the still-whirling maelstrom of speculation a week after the catastrophic end of Air France's flight 447, only a few facts have emerged, all of which point ominously to a seemingly inexplicable situation. How did it happen that highly experienced pilots flying a very sophisticated, nearly new jetliner for a world-class airline ended up in a monster thunderstorm when the wall of violent weather should have been starkly evident on the cockpit weathers radar and when the risks are well known. Meanwhile, the last few short coded fault reports, sent automatically by the aircraft's sophisticated flights systems to Air France,...

Tail of Doomed Air France Jet Found in Atlantic Ocean Monday, June 08, 2009 RECIFE, Brazil — Brazilian searchers found a large tail section from an Air France jet Monday, one of the biggest pieces yet recovered from wreckage that could help narrow the search for Flight 447's black boxes. A U.S. Navy team is bringing in high-tech underwater listening devices to detect pings from the data and voice recorders. Brazilian and French military ships that have so far recovered 16 bodies and large amounts of plane wreckage searched amid a sea of floating debris, finding the tail section with...

We will have plenty of time to debate the future EADS contract award status (i.e. split award) in the coming few weeks. During recovery operations, this is not the time for that particular debate! However, it has been reported that the Air France Flight 447 automated messages have revealed all three external air speed sensors were giving different readings for the plane’s velocity, diverging by up to 35 miles per hour – leaving the pilots and the on-board computer confused over what information to follow. Take a look at this well known and previously debated YouTube Video. As the Captain...