Air France 447 - Concerns Over Recovering AF447 Recorders
Robert Wall/Paris wall@aviationweek.com
The French accident investigation office (BEA) believes the suspected crash site of Air France AF447 may make recovery of flight data and cockpit voice recorders a challenge and is bracing for having to rely on other datapoints to try to unravel the mystery of the crash of the Airbus A330-200.
It's not just the depth of the ocean where the A330 went down that's at issue, but also the rough terrain of the sea-bed in that region, says Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the BEA. "This will not be an easy investigation," he notes.
The AF447 took off Sunday evening from Rio de Janeiro to Paris at 7:03 p.m. local time, with 228 on board; all 216 passengers and 12 crew are presumed dead.
Still, Arslanian does not rule out a probable cause finding even if the recorders are not recovered, noting that prior accidents were solved even if the recorders were damaged. The BEA is targeting a first report on the events for the end of the month.
So far, no signals have been detected from either recorder, but that's largely owing to the relatively low range of the low-band beacons.
The BEA, which is leading the investigation because the crash occurred in international air space and AF447 was registered in France (as F-GZCP), has set up a team of 20 to carry out the investigation, which will be aided by Airbus and Air France officials. Alain Bouillard is the investigator in charge.
Two BEA representatives are already in Rio de Janeiro, where the flight departed on May 31 before contact was lost about four hours later with 228 onboard. The BEA team is accompanied by Airbus and Air France representatives. The exact crash time has not yet been established, nor who was at the controls at the time.
The Brazilian government has confirmed that wreckage spotted by Brazilian air force aircraft belong to AF447.
The wreckage was first spotted by the synthetic aperture radar-equipped R-99 and later visually by a KC-130, with crews seeing non-metallic parts. The debris field stretches around 5 kilometers, with seats, wires, and airframe parts visible.
The crash site is being given as near the islands of St. Peter and St. Paul, around 205 miles from the Fernando de Noronha archipelago. Any debris or bodies that are recovered will first be brought there.
At this point, investigators say it is premature to determine whether the seen debris field indicates the aircraft impacted the water surface in tact or may have started disintegration while still airborne.
The investigative team is broken into four groups, one overseeing the search operation, another looking into the aircraft's history, the third examining aircraft operations and the last reviewing systems and equipment, Bouillard says.
Data still is limited, Arslanian says. The aircraft departed with no known faults. In the last received communication from the flight deck, the pilot reported turbulence about a half hour before the aircraft is believed to have been lost. The aircraft sent a series of electronic messages over a three-minute period, which represented only about a minute of information, Arslanian said. Exactly what that data means hasn't been sorted out, yet, he adds.
Air France received the data, but it does not appear to immediately have sparked major concern. With the investigation now formally underway, Air France refused to address the issue of the messages.
Photo credit: Air France
