Tue, Nov 30, 2010
Fourth Phase Set To Begin In February
The French Transportation Ministry says it will resume the
search for the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from Air
France flight 447, which went down in the Atlantic Ocean June 1,
2009. Officials say they will begin the fourth phase of the
search in February of next year.
File Photo
Finding the so-called "black boxes" would potentially give
government officials and Airbus a much better insight into what
happened when the A330 went down during a flight from Rio de
Janeiro to Paris. All 228 people were lost when the airplane
impacted the ocean near the equator during a thunderstorm.
Reuters reports that the probe is still centering around
possible icing over the airplane's speed sensors. Telemetry
received from the airplane gave inconsistent airspeed readings just
before contact with the aircraft was lost.
The French News Service AFP reports that Air France told a judge
looking into the accident that it was not responsible for the loss
of the airplane. A memo from the airline seemed to implicate Airbus
and Thales, the company which made the airspeed sensors on the
A330. The FAA, EASA, and other civil aviation authorities have
required that those sensors be replaced on the aircraft.
The Air France document obtained by AFP indicates that the
airline was aware of a problem with the pitot probes, and had
already started looking for a remedy when the accident occurred. It
indicates that Airbus and Thales "felt these events (in which
pilots reported airspeed anomalies) were minor." Airbus said it had
warned Airbus about icing on the pitot probes on numerous
occasions, but that it is "impossible" to draw a direct correlation
between the probes and the accident.
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