Air France passenger jet vanishes from radar

[Jahpson]

Originally Posted by Vegas Long Legs

How many bodies have they found so far? I haven't heard anything about this crash in days. weird

I keep checking for updates and so far there were like 24 or something last I checked.

The bodies are already at the labs for ID and possible autopsies. Hopefully in a couple of days the results can be made public.

[Jahpson]

Finally!

British newspaper The Independent reported Sunday that autopsies of the first 16 bodies recovered from the site where Air France Flight 447 crashed suggest that the aircraft was not a victim of a terrorist attack.
The Independent's John Lichfield, reporting from Paris, said the details of the autopsies leaked to the Brazilian press over the weekend indicate the bodies showed no sign of burning or damage from an explosion.

Please click link for full story:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...m-1705212.html

[Jahpson]

total of 50 bodies recovered.

Wreckage unlikely to be found.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americ...ash/index.html

[Jill]

interesting ...this was in the above ^news

Air France has promised that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless at least two of its three Pitot tubes have been replaced. The tubes are an instrument contained in the speed-sensing system.




So......2 out of 3?????LMAO....what happens if they ALL arent replaced??
Can u tell im flying in one of these soon??HEHE..Id like to think that ALL 3 DEFECTIVE sensors would b replaced..NO?

[TXGirlie]

That's aviation for you!

[Veelyn]

http://charter.net/news/read.php?rip...ARSDCCL3_UNEWS

French: 400 pieces of Air France debris found


LE BOURGET, France (AP) — Search teams have recovered more than 400 pieces of debris from Air France Flight 447 but investigators still do not know why the plane crashed into the Atlantic, the French accident chief said Wednesday.
Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the French air accident investigation agency BEA, expressed "a little more optimism" about the investigation as the discovery of so much debris has narrowed the vast search zone off the northeast coast of Brazil.
"We are in a situation that is a bit more favorable than the first days," Arslanian told a news conference at BEA headquarters by the Le Bourget air field outside Paris. "We can say there is a little less uncertainty, so there is a little more optimism."
"(But) it is premature for the time being to say what happened," he added.
Rescuers and military search equipment from Brazil, France, the United States and other countries are methodically scanning the surface and depths of the Atlantic for signs of the Airbus A330 that crashed May 31 after running into thunderstorms en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 people aboard were killed.
Arslanian said the debris that has been found came from "all zones" of the plane, but he did not describe it in detail or say what proportion of the plane had been retrieved. The wreckage, some in sections so large and heavy that cranes were required to move it, is being collected in a hangar in Recife, Brazil.
"It is almost certain today that the whole plane won't be recovered," he said.
Still missing are the plane's two black boxes, its flight data and voice recorders, thought to be deep under water. The black boxes, which provide information about what happened to the plane before and during the crash, will emit signals for at least another two weeks. After that, the signals will fade.
French-chartered ships are trolling with two high-tech U.S. Navy underwater listening devices attached to 19,700 feet (6,000 meters) of cable. The black boxes send out an electronic tapping sound that can be heard up to 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) away.



That Atlantic Ocean search area has a radius of 50 miles (80 kilometers), Arslanian said.
"It is one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation," Arslanian said.
Without the black boxes, the investigation so far has focused on a flurry of automated messages sent by the plane minutes before it lost contact. One of those messages suggested that external speed sensors had iced over and destabilized the plane's control systems.
Arslanian said most of the messages "appeared as linked to this loss of validity of speed information." He said when the speed information became "incoherent" it affected other systems on the plane that relied on that speed data. But he stressed that not all the automated messages were related to the speed sensors.
The automated messages were not alarm calls and no distress call was picked up from the plane, he said. The plane was cruising at about 34,500 feet (10,500 meters) when it went down, the BEA added in a statement.
Air France has replaced the sensors, called Pitot tubes, on all its A330 and A340 aircraft, under pressure from pilots who feared a link to the accident.
Arslanian said a French doctor from the BEA was not allowed to participate in autopsies done so far on some Flight 447 bodies by Brazilian authorities, and those autopsy results have not been released to the BEA. He said he was "not happy" with this situation.
However, he added that French judicial authorities, who are conducting a parallel criminal probe, were present at the autopsies.
Brazil's Federal Police and state medical authorities in Recife who are overseeing the autopsies said in a statement that two French investigators, a dental expert and a doctor, had been following the examinations as observers since June 10.
With another body found Tuesday, 50 victims have been recovered so far, according to Brazilian authorities.
The French are leading the crash investigation, while the Brazilians are leading the rescue operation.

[Veelyn]

This photo released Wednesday June 17, 2009 by the French army shows soldiers approaching a piece of debris believed to be part of Air France flight 447, during continuing searches for debris and bodies on Friday June 12, 2009 in the Atlantic Ocean. Air France Flight 447, en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro with 228 passengers and crew, went down in the ocean on June 1.

[bagaholic85]

wow thanks for the post veelyn.

[Veelyn]

No problem!

[Jahpson]

Autopsies suggest that Air France jet blew up in the sky

" Autopsies revealed fractures in the legs, hips and arms of Air France disaster victims, a Brazilian official said Wednesday. Experts said those injuries — and the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic — strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air."


"
"Typically, if you see intact bodies and multiple fractures — arm, leg, hip fractures — it's a good indicator of a midflight break up," said Frank Ciacco, a former forensic expert at the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. "Especially if you're seeing large pieces of aircraft as well."
The pattern of fractures was first reported Wednesday by Brazil's O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, which cited unnamed investigators. The paper also reported that some victims were found with little or no clothing, and had no signs of burns."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090617/...a/brazil_plane

********

please keep the families in your prayers

[Florasun]

^^ Ugh I read that. What a horrible scenario.

[sw0pp]

Can a plane break up in the air without an explosion? Lightning can't do that, can it?

[annanas]

Originally Posted by sw0pp

Can a plane break up in the air without an explosion? Lightning can't do that, can it?

it can, even from flying too fast for the altitude and conditions, lightning wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with it. it would have to be by a dramatic amount and the pilots should be able to tell even without the use of speed gauges by the sounds the plane would make but if there was some kind of other major distraction anything could have happened, the weather certainly wouldn't have helped.

[TXGirlie]

It probably was explosive decompression...sounds like the clothes were 'sucked' off the people. I hope it's not as simple as someone opening the door in flight.

[Sternchen]

Oh my goodness gracious...