Air France Flight Hit Water Intact

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) - 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»

Investigators find passengers on French list of radical Muslims

(NEWSER) - Two people on board crashed Air France Flight 447 were on a French list of radical Muslims seen as terror threats, London’s Evening Standard reports. French security officials sent to Brazil discovered the passengers’ status; a security insider called the terror link “highly significant,” though it could be a “macabre coincidence.” Computer problems were involved in the crash, but officials haven’t ruled out terror. More»

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»