Jet Likely Broke Apart in Mid-Air

Investigation among most complex and expensive in history

(AP) - French investigators have recovered all the flight data and cockpit voice recordings from the recorders of an Air France jet found in the Atlantic nearly two years after it crashed, they said today. The recorders were located by underwater robots and hoisted from depths of some 13,000 feet earlier this month , in one of the most expensive and complicated air crash investigations in history. Investigators and victims' families are hoping the recorders will shed light on what sent Flight 447 into the sea on June 1, 2009, as it traveled from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. More»

(NEWSER) - An Italian woman who cheated fate when she missed her flight on the doomed Air France jet has been killed in a car crash, the London Times reports. Johanna Ganthaler and her husband were late to the Rio airport on May 31 and caught another flight the next day. The two then traveled to Austria, where their car collided with an oncoming truck. Her husband was seriously injured. More»

(AP) - Brazilian searchers found a large tail section from an Air France jet today, one of the biggest pieces yet recovered from wreckage that could help narrow the search for Flight 447's black boxes. A US Navy team is bringing in high-tech underwater listening devices to detect pings from the data and voice recorders. Brazilian and French military ships had so far recovered 16 bodies and large amounts of plane wreckage—reduced from the 17 reported yesterday. 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) - Brazil's Navy and Air Force gave up their search for Air France Flight 447 victims today, citing the difficulty of finding bodies and wreckage 25 days after the crash, Reuters reports. "It's already been nine days without seeing any bodies," a Brazilian officer said. French ships will remain, seeking black boxes that may help solve the mystery of the crash. Fifty-one bodies and 600 pieces of wreckage have been recovered so far. More»