AF447 ‘fell 10km in four minutes’

BTN News
Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Three months after the crash of Air France flight AF447 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, investigators say they still have more questions than answers and it will take another 18 months “at least” to reach conclusions about the causes of the accident.

However, they do believe the accident was not primarily caused by failed Pitot speed sensors because most of the Pitot malfunctions lasted only a few seconds and the pilots “did not react to them”. Earlier reports based on the aircraft's final signals had suggested that the Pitot tubes malfunctioned and may have led to the crash.


"At the moment, we are unable to explain the accident," Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the French Office of BEA said.


"We lack an explanation for the loss of 10 kilometres of altitude in four flight minutes. That is enormous."
The plane, carrying 228 people, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean early on June 1. There were no survivors and only 51 bodies were recovered from the sea.


The BEA now plans a further search phase after submarines exploring the crash zone failed to find the main wreckage of the plane or its flight data recorders.


“We must count a year and a half to have made progress,” Arslanian said. Even 18 months might be “optimistic”, he said, because no-one knows where the plane came down and searchers are trying to cover an area the size of Switzerland.


Toulouse, France-based Airbus, the maker of the downed plane, has offered to help finance continued research efforts.

AF447 ‘fell 10km in four minutes’

BTN News
Wednesday, 02 September 2009
Three months after the crash of Air France flight AF447 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, investigators say they still have more questions than answers and it will take another 18 months “at least” to reach conclusions about the causes of the accident.

However, they do believe the accident was not primarily caused by failed Pitot speed sensors because most of the Pitot malfunctions lasted only a few seconds and the pilots “did not react to them”. Earlier reports based on the aircraft's final signals had suggested that the Pitot tubes malfunctioned and may have led to the crash.


"At the moment, we are unable to explain the accident," Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the French Office of BEA said.


"We lack an explanation for the loss of 10 kilometres of altitude in four flight minutes. That is enormous."
The plane, carrying 228 people, crashed into the Atlantic Ocean early on June 1. There were no survivors and only 51 bodies were recovered from the sea.


The BEA now plans a further search phase after submarines exploring the crash zone failed to find the main wreckage of the plane or its flight data recorders.


“We must count a year and a half to have made progress,” Arslanian said. Even 18 months might be “optimistic”, he said, because no-one knows where the plane came down and searchers are trying to cover an area the size of Switzerland.


Toulouse, France-based Airbus, the maker of the downed plane, has offered to help finance continued research efforts.