Mon, Jun 08, 2009
The Defense Department is flying a
19-person crew and Navy equipment to Natal, Brazil, to aid in the
search for Air France Flight 447's data recorders, according to the
Pentagon. The Airbus A330 jetliner with 228 people aboard
disappeared May 31 in thunderstorms while traveling from Rio de
Janeiro to Paris.
Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon said the U.S. crew, a mix of military
personnel and contractors assigned to Naval Sea Systems Command's
supervisor of salvage and diving here, will operate Navy towed
pinger locators, or TPLs, from two French-contracted ships.
The passive listening devices, which can locate emergency
beacons up to 20,000 feet below the ocean's surface, will be towed
behind the vessels at speeds of 1 to 5 knots, depending on water
depth, Gordon said. If they detect an acoustic pulse, it's
transmitted up the towing cable and is presented in audio and
visual modes.
The first ship to receive a TPL and a crew will depart for the
search area June 10. The second ship is scheduled to depart June
12. Last week, a U.S. Navy P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft was
deployed to Brazil, where it flew three search missions of about
eight hours each. It returned to Florida over the weekend.
Brazilian officials are reporting 16 bodies and a large part of
the aircraft's tail section have been recovered from the wreckage
field. While not exactly identifying the location of the search
area, the officials have said it's south of the plane's last
transmission, indicating pilots may have turned back toward a
nearby island.
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