Air France 447 Reported Missing

[blackbear]

Oh I believe you.
I am sure he heard it also...

[xsbank]

Apparently the captain's body was found separate from the aircraft and the cojos were found strapped in...

[flyinhigh]

sorry did they find the flight deck, or any other major components.

I can't be bothered to read 15 pages worth.

[ywgflyboy]

PARIS (Reuters) - The location of black box recorders from a 2009 Air France crash that killed 228 people has been sharply narrowed down in the Atlantic Ocean, the French air accident investigation authority said on Thursday.


France's BEA body, which looks into air crashes, said it made the breakthrough after a further analysis of sonar data from an initial search of the crash area last year.


"The BEA was told yesterday ... that the black box recorders have been tracked down by the defence ministry thanks to data from the first phase of the probe, and a further perimeter for searches has been set up," said a BEA spokeswoman.


French government spokesman Luc Chatel advised caution. "Now we must see if there's a possibility of recovering the black boxes and to see at what depth they are," he told France Info radio.


Two sophisticated salvage vessels, using miniature submarines, have been scouring a 3,000-square-km area to try to locate the flight recorders of the Airbus (EAD.PA) A330 plane.


France Info radio said that area was now reduced to just 3-5 square-km.


Le Figaro newspaper reported in an advance copy of its Friday edition that the aircraft may have turned around to escape a zone of turbulence or to return to Brazil. The newspaper cited a government source, without specifying whether it was a Brazilian or French source.


The paper said the new search zone for the wreck was 20 nautical miles, or just under 40 km south-west of the last known position of the aircraft, as opposed to the area north of the last known position of the plane, which had previously been the focus of search efforts.


Air France and BEA could not immediately be reached for comment on the Le Figaro story.


Air France Flight AF447 between Rio de Janeiro and Paris plunged into a remote corner of the Atlantic during a storm on June 1, killing everyone on board. Earlier this week, the BEA said it would extend a deep-sea search for the wreck of the plane and that the new search would cover a broader expanse of ocean.


Speculation about the cause of the crash has focused on possible icing of the aircraft's speed sensors, which appeared to give inconsistent readings seconds before the plane vanished.


Investigators need to recover the flight recorders to confirm or deny that theory.


*Reporting by Thierry Leveque; Writing by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton

[Panama Jack]

As a rule, I am not much of a fan of conspiracy theories however, in reading some articles during the last couple of days including the quote by a French defence department officer downplaying the likelihood of that the black boxes will be retrieved, I sometimes get the strange feeling that Airbus, and the French, hope that the black boxes will never be found.

[ywgflyboy]

I still think FD should be streamed to a central station (on the ground). The planes have the capabiliy to send all those failure messages, I am sure we can engineer some way to transmit a few more numbers into a ground database.... Imagine not having to find these damm boxes, they were a click of the mouse.

Maybe in the next decade.

[Pratt]

This is a company that has developed exactly what you are talking about, working on a deal with Airbus and alot of others. Very interesting, for all you investors out there could be a good idea getting in.


http://www.star-navigation.com/

[ywgflyboy]

Damm. Here I am thinking I had a $$$$ idea!

[Panama Jack]

Unless it gets so inexpensive that it becomes a "yeah, why not?" or the regulators actually start demanding airlines equip their airplanes with this new technology, I don't see it taking on.

[c170b53]

I don't understand this "new" idea. Aircraft have had the capability to download fault data in real time for some time now (ACARS). Recently Satcom has been providing a means to continue the same communication with aircraft when out of radio range. What prevents widespread live usage is the cost of Sat time, the number of satellites (coverage) and the number of aircraft accessing these resources simultaneously. Even if this company has a solution to lower the costs to where it would be dirt cheap there are still a few obstacles to overcome. Someone would have to be at the switch at all times with the aircraft type knowledge. As well once a fault was determined to be genuine, and outside of the fault reporting capability of the aircraft what would you do about it with the aircraft at 40K, 180 out? Would the crew want to try stuff out of the box that far out? And in what time frame would a resolution be implemented? I'm not sure of the better investment, the new and improved "Clapper" or this company, then again someone at late night TV probably did make money.

[yycflyguy]

Looks like another search for the planes CVR and DFDR.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/11 ... tml?hpt=T2

[2R]

As a rule, I am not much of a fan of conspiracy theories however, in reading some articles during the last couple of days including the quote by a French defence department officer downplaying the likelihood of that the black boxes will be retrieved, I sometimes get the strange feeling that Airbus, and the French, hope that the black boxes will never be found.

Not the first time evidence was left on the seabed to prevent any of terrorists getting the opportunity to gloat over their evil work.

[invertedattitude]

Last I checked terrorists revel in gloating, they don't need proof to claim responsibility...

I believe the OP was referring to an Airbus design flaw cover up

[RFlyer]

Hi

Tonight on PBS - "Nova" - (9:00 PM in Vancouver) the subject is an investigation into the crash of flight 447. It says "New" on the listing so should be right up to date, one hopes.

Cheers

[Geko]

Hi

Tonight on PBS - "Nova" - (9:00 PM in Vancouver) the subject is an investigation into the crash of flight 447. It says "New" on the listing so should be right up to date, one hopes.

Cheers

It was an interesting watch.

[FastFlyBy]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/cras ... t-447.html

Can't watch it online in Canada, too bad

[burhead1]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/cras ... t-447.html

Can't watch it online in Canada, too bad

you can if you use a proxy
or a program called hide your ip

[FastFlyBy]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/cras ... t-447.html

Can't watch it online in Canada, too bad

you can if you use a proxy
or a program called hide your ip

Sweet! thanks

[AUGER9]

Part of the flight recorder has been found, although not the part with memory. Hopefully getting close now.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/ ... =obnetwork

[Changes in Latitudes]

Memory has been found!


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... f8fa3babb9

[ogc]

Memory has been found!


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... f8fa3babb9

This is great news, hopefully the data can be read and is useable.

Maybe we will get a definitive answer as to what caused this tragedy after all.

[Crusty]

I've never flown anything with a recorder before. Are we past the days of data on electromagnetic tape? I'm guessing this memory unit thing is solid state? If so, when was the tape phased out?

[Miguel AB]

The CVR has been found too

BEA 3rd May 2011 briefing

Flight AF 447 on 1st June 2009

A330-203, registered F-GZCP
3rd May 2011 briefing

The investigation team localized and identified the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) at 21h50 UTC on Monday 2 May, 2011. It was raised and lifted on board the ship Ile de Sein by the Remora 6000 ROV at 02 h 40 UTC this morning, on Tuesday 3rd May, 2011.

[YCL Boy]

Video search and discovery FDR from the BEA.
Great job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TklixzANphg

[YCL Boy]

AF447: Map of the debris field.

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/fligh ... field.html