Terrorists Didn't Down Flight 447: Autopsies

(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»

Crash victims pulled from wreckage could be preserved by icy depths

(NEWSER) - A French search team has pulled another 75 victims of the Air France Flight 447 crash out of the briny depths in recent days, a spokesman for the French military police said today. He would not say what condition the bodies were in, but Reuters notes that the first two bodies recovered from the crash—who were found still strapped to their airline seats at a depth of 12,800 feet—were well-preserved thanks to the icy temperatures at that depth. More»

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»

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»

(NEWSER) - Three families of victims in the Air France crash have signed on as plaintiffs in a manslaughter probe into the Air France crash, reports the BBC. Under French law, they'll now have access to investigative files. The Paris prosecutor launched the probe last week, which is routine in such cases. The families are suspicious that company officials knew of air-speed sensor problems before the plane took off. "Why weren't the planes kept on the ground?" asked the lawyer for one of the families. More»