Deadly crash of Air France flight 447

Investigators probing the deadly crash of Air France flight 447 over the Atlantic are running out of time to find the flight data recorders which could prove crucial to working out what caused the disaster.

The U.S. Navy has contributed two high-tech acoustic devices -- known as towed pinger locators -- which have been attached to French tug boats and can search to a maximum depth of 20,000ft (6,100 meters).

The firm which makes the recorders, Honeywell Aerospace, has told CNN it has a 100 percent recovery record from air accidents.Honeywell said it was hard to estimate how much battery life the locator beacon on the recorders had, as it depended on the conditions, but it is typically around 30 days.

In another strange twist to this tragic saga, it’s been revealed that maintenance technicians had been summoned to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport on June 1 to replace the Pitot tubes on the Airbus A330 aircraft. The jet, of course, never arrived, instead crashing into the ocean northeast of Brazil, killing 228 people.

Charles Bremner, reporting in the TimesOnline, wrote that Air France officials had confirmed that a maintenance team had been dispatched to the airport after the aircraft sent an automated message reporting a problem with its Pitot tubes. The tubes, sometimes called Pitot probes, are used to measure the airspeed of aircraft.

Rather than appearing to be a rapid response to a problem, Air France’s action instead may be viewed as damning evidence that the airline reacted too slowly to an issue it had known about for months. The website eurocockpit.com, produced by professional pilots, has posted a document which it says originated in June 2008 that shows Air France was aware of problems with the Pitot tubes on Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft.

Faulty Pitot probe readings could have caused the aircraft to automatically fly at the wrong speed for the weather conditions in the stormy Inter-tropical Convergence Zone near the Equator.

French authorities have today revealed that Air France Flight 447 sent 24 error messages shortly before the plane disappeared during the flight between Rio de Janeiro and Paris with 228 people on board. They also said that the plane’s auto-pilot was not active, although they say that from the error messages it is impossible to determine the reason for it being inactive. The crash is said to be the world’s worst aviation disaster since 2001.

Rescuers have long since given up on attempting to find any survivors instead now trying to locate and recover the wreckage of the flight and more importantly the flight data recorders, without which they say they may never know what happened to the flight. The process of recovery is expected to be difficult with the seabed reaching depths of 3,000 to 4,000 meters. Both American and French specialist equipment has been sent to the area with the aim of recovering the recorders, however French officials say that the locator beacons attached to the boxes could possibly have become detached by the force of the impact.

Most bodies were found without clothing

Most of the bodies were found without clothing, which could possibly have been taken off by the wind during their fall (further evidence that they were sucked out of the plane). It's therefore possible that the bodies which have been found were those sucked from the plane, and that the majority of the remaining bodies are fixed to their seats in the hull of the plane (presumably underwater).

No burns

Prelimanary analysis of the bodies indicates that they didn't suffer any burns, indicating that there was not an explosion and that the plane broke apart mid-air.
No water in lungs, multiple fractures

The bodies had no water in the their lungs, indicating they did not die from drowning, but had multiple fractures.

Bodies delivered to Recife

Bodies will be delivered to the airport at Fernando de Noronha island and then to Recife for identification. Rescuers believe that some bodies may have been consumed by sharks or have sunk.

Bodies widely dispersed

The bodies have been found dispersed as much as 85 miles apart, indicating that the plane probably broke up over several minutes whist in the air, with the passengers sitting helpless and occassionally some being sucked out.
Warm water means bodies sink quicker

An intact body will typically float for 2 or 3 weeks. The warmer the water the quicker the process of a body surfacing, floating and then sinking once again; as a result of the increased amount of marine life which breaks the bodies down. The water in which the bodies of flight 447 lies, is 28 degrees celsius.

Personal items

Numerous other personal items belonging to the passengers have been found, but authorities are not revealing what they are. All personal items are being handed to Air France, who will deliver them to the families of the Flight 447 victims.

Two passengers on terrorist watch list

French secret servicemen have established that 2 passengers on board flight 447, are also on highly-classified documents listing the names of radical Muslims considered a threat to the French Republic.

Italian who missed AF447 dies in car crash

Johanna Ganthaler, an Italian lady from the Bolzano-Bozen Province - South Tyrol, was lucky enough to arrive late for AF447 and missed the flight. Her and her husband Kurt caught a flight later in the day from Rio de Janeiro to Munich. However, like in the movie Final Destination, fate finally caught up with Johanna and she died in a head-on collission when their car swerved into a truck coming from the opposite direction. The accident occurred near Kufstein, Austria. Kurt Ganthaler was also injured in the accident.