Airspeed Woes Have Long Plagued Airbus A330

Icing concerns fueled replacements beginning last month

(NEWSER) - Air France is speeding up the process of replacing sensors on its Airbus planes following the crash of Flight 447, the BBC reports, a process it began in April. In May of last year, Air France said, it observed a “small number” of “incidents of loss of airspeed information during cruise flight” on A330s and A340s. The firm told Airbus about its concern, and Airbus suggested replacing the monitors. More»

(NEWSER) - A missing Air France jet hit thunderstorms over the Atlantic, likely crashing and killing all 228 people on board, the AP reports. Half an hour after falling out of Brazilian radio contact, the Airbus A330 "crossed through a thunderous zone with strong turbulence”; Nicolas Sarkozy told families of those aboard that "prospects of finding survivors were very small." More»

(NEWSER) - The Air France flight that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean early today after leaving Rio de Janeiro for Paris is believed to have crashed, Reuters reports. Mechanical malfunctions kept the aircraft's crew from keeping in touch with air-traffic controllers after they reported serious turbulence about 4 hours into the flight. "It is probably a combination of circumstances that could have led to the crash," an airline rep said. More»

But it may not be possible to recover all the bodies found

(NEWSER) - Following the recovery of the black box and cockpit recorder from the 2009 Air France crash, officials have pulled a passenger's body from the ocean. The French Gendarmerie says the remains, which were still attached to a plane seat, were pulled up this morning. The first search effort after the doomed flight led to 50 bodies being recovered; all 228 people aboard the plane were killed. Recovering the latest body involved great technical difficulties, however, meaning it may not be possible to recover all the bodies found in the latest search, the AP notes. Click for more on Flight 447 . More»

Investigators hope for clues in 2009 plane crash

(NEWSER) - On the heels of recovering the black box from the doomed Air France flight that fell out of the sky off the Brazilian coast nearly two years ago, French investigators have pulled the cockpit recorder from the depths of the Atlantic, reports the AP. It's not yet certain whether the recorder has held up to the ocean pressure that comes with a resting place 12,800 feet below sea level. But investigators have said they have no shot of determining the cause of the crash without the devices. "It is my heartfelt hope that the data contained in these flight recorders may be used and provide answers," said Air France's CEO in a statement. Click for more on the lost Air France plane. More»