Brazil Confirms Debris Came From Fallen Jet

Weather alone can't explain crash: aviation analyst

(NEWSER) - Searchers spotted more wreckage today from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean earlier this week with 228 people aboard. A team of international aircraft discovered four fields of metallic debris and a 12-mile fuel slick some 220 miles off the Brazilian coast, the Washington Post reports. Lighter plane parts may flow in currents to Africa by next week. More»

(NEWSER) - How will authorities go about finding Air France Flight 447? Essentially, it'll take a lot more planes, Slate explains. Most of the jet’s location gadgets, like its emergency locator transmitters, are unlikely to work underwater. The flight recorders have sonar devices attached that can transmit from 14,000 feet down, but one needs to be relatively nearby to detect them. More»

Key devices could be beyond reach of deep-sea divers

(NEWSER) - The black boxes from the missing Air France jet are crucial to determining what brought the plane down, but locating the devices could present the most daunting challenge since the Titanic mission, Reuters reports. “You are looking for a needle in a haystack,” said one industry specialist, guessing recovery could take months, especially if the boxes are beyond divers’ reach. More»

(NEWSER) - Brazilian air force planes have spotted seats and other debris floating in the ocean under the path of Air France flight 447, and the military is scrambling to confirm the material is from the missing airliner, Reuters reports. "The command center needs to have at least one piece of the debris with a serial number to confirm that it belongs to the airplane," an air force colonel said. More»

Pilot on separate flight may have seen fire in ocean

(NEWSER) - As French and Brazilian military aircraft continue to search the Atlantic Ocean for signs of lost Air France Flight 447, investigators are mulling a range of possible explanations—lightning, bad electronics, a pilot error, or a combination of the three. Late last night the Brazilian airline TAM said its pilots spotted "several orange points," which they suspected was fire, in the ocean along the flight's route around the time it disappeared. More»