International search for Air France jet wreckage to resume in March

REUTERS - An international search to locate the wreckage from an Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic last year killing 228 people will resume in mid-March, French officials said on Wednesday.

Two ships from the United States and Norway will conduct the search for at least one month off the coast of Brazil with three underwater drones and two robots, according to the BEA, the authority in charge of investigating air accidents.

Air France flight AF447 between Rio de Janeiro and Paris crashed into the sea on June 1, 2009, killing all on board.

Renewed efforts to find the wreckage would probably be the last chance to find out what lay behind the accident, said BEA head Jean-Paul Troadec.

“If we don’t find the flight recorders, we can’t go much further ... we have to carry out this search. It will use the world’s leading technology,” Troadec told a news conference.

A search last year found several pieces of wreckage and 50 bodies but the black box flight recorders, which could help explain the disaster, have not been recovered and the causes of the crash remain unexplained.