As the search for answers in the crash of Air France flight AF 447 continues, France’s investigation bureau spoke to the media on Wednesday to explain how the investigation is proceeding, but admitted that no new information had so far been uncovered.

“We do not have any new details to indicate what happened to flight 447,” Paul-Louis Arslanian, director of the Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA), told the journalists assembled in Le Bourget.

“We must be prudent and very patient,” he said, but added that the search team was making progress.

“I think we may be getting a little bit closer to our goal,” he said.

Paul-Louis Arslanian, director of France's Investigation and Analysis Bureau, chastises media

Arslanian made a point of warning reporters against lending credence to any information that is not made public by the bureau. Pending the publication of the BEA’s report, Arslanian said the bureau plans to issue press releases and hold press conferences to keep the public informed.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Aviation Week’s European columnist, Pierre Sparaco, noted that under France’s aviation regulations, no body other than the BEA can comment on a crash involving a French airline or aircraft. Even comments by Air France and Airbus must remain within “very, very narrow limits”.

“The sole sources of information is the BEA,” Sparaco said.

On Tuesday another body from the flight was found off the Brazilian coast, bringing the total number of victims recovered to 50 of the 228 on board. The Airbus A330 jet, which was en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, disappeared over the Atlantic overnight on May 31 to June 1.

The results of the first autopsies are not yet available. Arslanian said the French medical examiner sent to Brazil has not been allowed to take part in the autopsies, although he remains in close contact with the Brazilian authorities.

Lead investigator Olivier Ferrante told the press conference how the search and recovery operation is being carried out and some of the difficulties that it faces.

Brazilian and French ships and planes continue to scan the surface of the sea for clues to the disaster, aided by US air support. The French, US and German space agencies have been asked for satellite data and images to help with the search for debris, which is scattered over a vast area of 17,000 square kilometres.

The investigation continues to focus on locating the plane’s flight and data recorders, the so-called black box, in the hope that they can shed some light on what went wrong in the minutes before the crash.

Below the surface, submarine searches are being conducted “in an unfavourable environment,” Ferrante said. At the time of the crash the plane was flying over what he called the “Atlantic backbone,” an underwater mountain range that lies at a depth of up to 4.6 kilometres (2.8 miles).
 
He said investigators are favouring acoustic search methods to look for the black box’s locator signal - called the pinger - which emits a 37.5-megahertz signal for at least 30 days.

It’s now “a race against time,” Ferrante said.