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.

FMI: www.airfrance.com, www.airbus.com