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Latest update: 06/05/2010
- AF 447 crash
Flight 447 black boxes found, but recovery may be impossible
The black boxes of Air France flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009 en route from Rio to Paris killing 228 people, have been located by the French navy, but investigators say they may not be able to retrieve the devices.
By News Wires (text)
AFP - The French navy has located the flight recorders of the Air France jet which crashed in the Atlantic almost a year ago, but retrieving them may be a mission impossible, officials said Thursday.
The recorders have been localised "with a margin of error" of three nautical miles (five kilometres) in a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean, said defence ministry spokesman General Christian Baptiste.
French military officials cautioned however that this breakthrough did not mean that the black boxes will be successfully retrieved from the bottom of the ocean floor.
"It's like trying to find a shoe box in an area the size of Paris, at a depth of 3,000 metres (9,800 feet) and in a terrain as rugged as the Alps," said navy spokesman Hugues du Plessis d'Argentre.
Flight 447 was en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro when it went down on June 1 in stormy weather, killing all 228 people on board.
The crash was the worst in Air France's 75-year-history.
Intensive but unsuccessful sweeps of the Atlantic Ocean using submarines equipped with deep-sea sonar had turned up some debris but no sign of the flight data and cockpit recorders.
The flight recorders are key to understanding what caused the disaster, which remains largely unexplained.
The French Navy started a new operation on Monday to find the black boxes.
Welcoming the news, the families of the crash victims said it raised hopes but they quickly added that they would hold off on any celebration until the flight recorders were raised to the surface.
"This is a sign of hope, it's very good news for the families after 11 months of waiting," said Jean-Baptiste Audousset, president of an association grouping the families of some 60 victims.
Government spokesman Luc Chatel added: "We must remain extremely cautious because at this time we are talking about an area where they have been located."
"We then have to see if it is possible to recover the black boxes, depending on the depth, the surface area to cover... So I will remain extremely cautious," Chatel told France Info radio.
The breakthrough in pinpointing the area where the black boxes can be found came after new computer software was used to decode data collected by deep-sea submarines during their search last summer, said the defence ministry.
"They were able to discover signals that are compatible with the pings" from the black boxes, said Baptiste.
The latest search effort was set to wrap up on May 25, but officials said it may be extended again following the new findings.
The latest search covered an area of some 1,500 square kilometres (580 square miles) in a remote area far off the coast of Brazil.
The French air accident agency BEA has said that the jet's speed probes, made by French firm Thales, gave false readings and were "one of the factors" in the crash but "not the sole cause".
Pilots' unions and some of the relatives of victims of June's crash have accused Air France and Airbus of ignoring longstanding problems with air speed monitors on its jets in the run up to the disaster.
The companies insist that their jets met all safety standards, but they have nevertheless now replaced the speed monitors made by the French electronics company Thales with a different model produced by US firm Goodrich.
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Comments (10)
reader to RSS my feed
Yes there should realize the reader to RSS my feed to RSS commentary, quite simply
Well, the boxes themselves
Well, the boxes themselves looked like they were in good condition, so there is a good chance - it's not 100% though
flight recorder data should be telemetered to ground
"Advanced Aerospace Technology Provides Cost Reduction and Minimizes The Impact of Air France Flight 447 Category Disasters"
For the last ten years there hasn’t been a technical reason why the digital flight recorder data isn't securely sent in real-time to the ground for storage (see the BBC/Equinox video “The BOX”, 4/2000, A look at the shortcomings found in black box flight recorders). During this ten year interval both the US and Europe have had the capability of implementing remote aircraft flight recording if only they had the will to do so. Using a remote aircraft flight recorder, within a couple of seconds, you have the planes position/location, its attitude, velocity, etc. safely stored on the ground and used for flight safety, aviation security and cost reduction. The data used in real-time could have also prevented 9/11 (see http://www.safelander.com).
On June 4, 2009 the Los Angeles Times put following into their LETTERS section: “There is no technical reason why digital flight recorder data are not sent in real-time to the ground. We have the technology to do this. Then, within a couple of seconds, we would have a plane’s position, altitude and velocity safely stored on the ground. This information could be used for flight safety, aviation security and cost reduction. We don’t know what went wrong on Air France Flight 447, but we would sure know where the plane went down, why it went down and possibly could have saved lives.” Getting to the crash site early may save lives, getting the DFDR can prevent recurring fatal crashes. It’s not just position that’s needed, it’s all of the data sent to the recorder that is critical to ascertaining the root cause of a crash and should be available to prevent some of the crashes from occurring.
The real-time use of the data recorders will save a substantial amount of lives, make our country safer and reduce the cost of flying. Telemetering the flight data to the ground in real-time would assure that we have the data. In some crashes the flight data isn't recovered (e.g. 9/11, et al) or has errors in it since no one is looking at it, or using it in real-time to find malfunctions. Yet, this valuable digital flight recorder data (DFDR) data has been essentially left to the autopsy mode for post mortem simulations and not utilized proactively in real-time to save lives on cargo and carrier aircraft. We got the astronauts back from the moon by ground personnel monitoring the data in real-time. It was the ground personnel that found the problem and relayed back to the capsule the safe solution that saved the astronauts lives. It is now time to utilize this proven methodology for the good of the public.
Airbus Planes
I will never fly on one of these wretched, in my opinion, flight unwowrthy planes. There have too many incidents/crashes for my liking.
Knowing the proximity of the
Knowing the proximity of the boxes to an area within 3 nautical miles is not the same as locating them. Submersibles can go to depths much greater than these waters and retrieve things from the ocean floor so this article is misleading. It is not impossible to raise the boxes if they can be pinpointed. If the French Navy can't retrieve the boxes, get someone who can.
Black box
I think France did not seek help from scientifically developed states such as Japan, china and Israel on time. Next time try seek help on time. I always had a feeling that the black box could be located. I remain hopeful that some answers will be drawn nevertheless.If you are failing to read, please seek help.
THEY ARE LYING , ZIONIST MASOINC SCUM WAS BEHIND
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Speed sensors.
It would be interesting to see the readings from the sensor made by Thales mounted side by side with the sensor made by Goodrich
while flying the plane in similar condition as the Flight 447 was.
Gabe
Black Box
Seems to me they should be designed to float!
Black Box discovery from Air France 447
Finding the black boxes will go a long way in determining the cause and nature of the Air France 447 accident. It will at last alson afford the grieving families some level of closure. However, for cause of science and aernautics community it is necessary to use every available resource to recover the Black box on lthe ocean floor to ascertain the cause and nature of tehe worst air disaster in Air France's 75 year history
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