French BEA Says "No Conclusion Can Be Drawn" At This Stage Of The Investigation

An article appearing in the French press and reported here by USA Today and others indicates that Airbus has sent a Telex message to airlines indicating that the data recovered from the Flight Data Recorder aboard Air France Flight 447 shows no apparent urgent mechanical problems with the A330 in general. USA Today reports that the Telex was sent with the knowledge of the French accident investigating agency BEA, and that Airbus does not attempt determine cause in the AF447 accident in the message to operators. It would, however, potentially point away from the airplane as the cause of the accident in which 228 people were fatally injured. The article originally appeared in Le Figaro, which pointed to actions by the flight crew as the accident's possible cause.

File Photo

Gizmodo reports that, according to the Telex, after preliminary examination of the data "Airbus has no immediate recommendation to to its operators. Updates will be provided as soon as significant items that Airbus will be available or will be authorized to issue more information in accordance with the investigation."

In a news release, BEA blasted Le Figaro, saying "Sensationalist publication of non-validated information, whilst the analysis of the data from the flight recorders has only just started, is a violation of the respect due to the passengers and the crew members that died and disturbs the families of the victims, who have already suffered as a result of many hyped-up stories."

The BEA reiterated in the release that in the framework of its mission as a safety investigation authority, it alone has the right to communicate on the progress of the investigation. "Consequently, any information on the investigation that comes from another source is null and void if it has not been validated by the BEA," the agency says.

"Collection of all of the information from the audio recordings and from the flight parameters now gives us a high degree of certainty that everything will be brought to light concerning this accident. The BEA safety investigators will now have to analyse and validate a large quantity of complex data. This is long and detailed work, and the BEA has already announced that it will not publish an interim report before the summer.

BEA said in the statement that, at this stage of the investigation, no conclusions can be drawn.

FMI: www.bea.aero/en/index.php, www.airbus.com