French plane 'missing off Brazil' (AF447)

[flying_kiwi]

They found the black boxes!

'Found' seems a little premature here....The article says they have localized the black boxes but this localization has a margin of 5km....that's still an awful lot of seabed to explore.

Bas

What they've done is used new software to analysise data gathered during the initial search after the accident. They'll now have to focus the current phase of the search on that area, and, if they find the FDR and CVR, assess whether it is possible to recover them.
However, that said, this does give renewed hope that we will finally get a better idea of what actually occurred on that fateful flight.

Yorden

[aviodromefriend]

Franse onderzoekers hebben delen van het passagiersvliegtuig van Air France gelokaliseerd dat twee jaar geleden in de Atlantische Oceaan stortte. Volgens Air France is dat goed nieuws, omdat het de kans vergroot dat er iets bekend wordt over de oorzaak van de ramp.

Air France en vliegtuigbouwer Airbus betalen het onderzoek. Ze willen de zwarte dozen met vluchtgegevens vinden. Die zijn nodig om te weten waardoor het vliegtuig met 228 passagiers ver buiten de Braziliaanse kust neerstortte.

Oceanografen zoeken met een schip met onbemande duikboten in een gebied van tienduizend vierkante kilometer.

And what does this mean in an English only section?

Well, French investigators have now localised parts of the machine, which, according to AF increases the chances something will become known about the crash.

Investigations are paid for by AF and Airbus, who still hope to find the black boxes. The search is done by a mothership and an unmentioned amount of unmanned submarines. The search is done in an area of 10,000 square kilometers.

[aviodromefriend]

Update:

In wrakstukken van het toestel van Air France dat twee jaar geleden neerstortte in de Atlantische Oceaan, zijn lichamen gevonden. Dat heeft de Franse minister van Transport bekendgemaakt.

Volgens minister Kosciusko-Morizet zijn grote delen van het toestel gevonden op zo'n 4000 meter diepte, waaronder de cockpit. Franse onderzoekers lokaliseerden vannacht al een stuk van een vleugel en een deel van een motor.

Hoeveel lichamen zijn aangetroffen, is nog niet bekend. De minister sluit niet uit dat er identificaties kunnen worden gedaan.
Oorzaak

De Airbus A330 van Air France was op 1 juni 2009 op weg van Rio de Janeiro naar Parijs, toen het voor de Braziliaanse kust van de radar verdween. 228 mensen kwamen om. Tot dusver waren zo'n 50 lichamen gevonden.

So: inside the wreckage found at about 4 km deep, which includes the cockpit, also bodies have been found. Last night a piece of a wing and an engine were localized. The number of victims still onboard has not been made public, but it should be possible to identify at least a part of that people. Until these discoveries, about 50 bodies out of 228 on board during the flight were found,

[Stratofreighter]

http://forum.scramble.nl/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=73567

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... ssing.html

Bugger...

[flying_kiwi]

Great news!!!
The BEA reports that they have found and recovered the memory module of the FDR.

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol.af. ... 011.en.php

[dvdzee]

Is it still possible even after almost 2 years that they can use the data or is it possible that the FRD still contains some date which can be used ?

Douwe

[Melmac]

Is it still possible even after almost 2 years that they can use the data or is it possible that the FRD still contains some date which can be used ?

Douwe

These DFDR's have solid state memory modules, so with some luck (the canister seems to be intact) the data is still available.

[Starbucks]

They found the CVR yesterday evening (UTC) and recovered it this morning (UTC)

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol.af. ... 011.en.php

[aviodromefriend]

All data has been read out now: http://nos.nl/artikel/240847-zwarte-doz ... lezen.html and another update: The captain wasn't in the cockpit at the fatal moment, according to German magazine Der Spiegel. http://nos.nl/artikel/242367-piloot-ver ... ckpit.html

[Propwash]

Air France crash: Bad airspeed indications (Gamut News)

[aviodromefriend]

http://nos.nl/tekst/242845-fouten-pilot ... letekst%29
Hmmm, some items mentioned here sound familiar from the Turkish crash at Schiphol...

[B767-300ER]

http://nos.nl/tekst/242845-fouten-pilot ... letekst%29
Hmmm, some items mentioned here sound familiar from the Turkish crash at Schiphol...

Turkish: Altimeter...
AirFrance: Speed indicator....
Some little difference....
Note that these are all rumours.

[Starbucks]

The BEA released their first findings read from the FDR and CVR:
http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol.af. ... 011.en.php

The link in the text links to a PDF file of about 6 pages where the chain of events is explained

[Key]

Scary stuff. They pitched up sharply, stalled at a very high level and never recovered from that. The result was 3.5-minute plunge into the ocean...

Erik

[pjotrtje]

Ouch... Reading this makes me sick... Seems like a deep stall, perhaps maybe a stable flat spin. That must've been the most hellish fall for all on board.