Air France Crash Update
According to authorities a crucial Air France crash data may be be lost at sea, but Brazil hopes to find the jet under the ocean sea.
Military planes and ships struggled through high seas and heavy winds Wednesday as they searched for the bobbing wreckage of an Air France jet, which in crash in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, while an investigator said the plane's black boxes may never be found.
Rescue boats from several nations were sailing toward the site to start the recovery as aviation experts tried to determine why the plane carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on Sunday night ended up in the sea.
An airplane seat, a fuel slick, an orange lifevest and pieces of white debris were spotted Tuesday in the ocean about 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.
The floating debris is spread out in two areas about 35 miles (60 kilometers) apart, not far off the flight path of Flight 447. Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said no bodies had been found and there was no signs of life.
The French Bureau for the Investigation of Air Accidents said the black boxes would probably not be found due to insufficient information the mountainous terrain of the ocean floor, and that the wreckage could have sunk to a depth of 3,000 meters.
"I am not very optimistic that we will be able to find the flight recorders," Paul Louis Arslanian told reporters.
France has sent a research ship with two mini-submarines to the area.
The debris was discovered around 650 kilometers (390 miles) north of Brazil's Fernando de Noronha archipelago. Before losing contact, Air France Flight 447 had sent an automatic signal to airline maintenance computers from the area, indicating several technical failures.
Ten minutes later, the plane sent a burst of automatic messages, indicating the autopilot had disengaged, the "fly-by-wire" computer system had been switched to alternative power, and controls needed to keep the plane stable had been damaged. An alarm also sounded, indicating the deterioration of flight systems, according to the report.
Three minutes after that, more automatic messages indicated the failure of two other fundamental systems pilots use to monitor air speed, altitude and direction. Then, a cascade of other electrical failures in systems that control the main flight computer and wing spoilers.
Air France Crash
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