AF447 Rio Paris

Vol Rio-Paris AF 447 : de nouvelles recherches pourraient être lancées

La décision sera prise en novembre.

Une décision pourrait être prise en novembre sur le lancement d'une quatrième campagne de recherche de l'épave de l'Airbus A330-200 d'Air France, disparu le 1er juin 2009 dans l'Océan Atlantique lors d'un vol Rio-Paris. Après l'échec de la troisième campagne, en mai dernier, le Bureau d'enquêtes et d'analyses (BEA) a décidé de reprendre toutes les données collectées depuis l'accident, de les analyser et d'évaluer quelles zones ont été couvertes, comment, avec quels outils etc. Cette analyse devrait être terminée début novembre. A ce moment là, le BEA et ses principaux partenaires_ - Air France et Airbus - auront tous les éléments en main pour estimer la faisabilité technique d'une quatrième phase de recherche, établir un devis et prendre une décision. Objectif : localiser l'épave, en espérant trouver par là même les fameuses boîtes noires qui, si elles ne sont pas trop endommagées, pourraient livrer des informations sur la réaction de l'avion et sur les propos tenus dans le cockpit. L'aspect financier ne devrait pas être un obstacle. " Si c'est le prix de la vérité, on le paiera", assure un proche du dossier. Air France et Airbus ont déjà contribué à hauteur de 13 millions d'euros à la troisième campagne.

Australian investigators have concluded that an unreliable airspeed incident involving a Jetstar Airbus A330-200 was caused by ice obstructing at least two of the twinjet's pitot probes.

The aircraft involved in the 28 October 2009 event, VH-EBA, had also been involved in a similar occurrence seven months earlier, says the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Pitot icing has become a focus of attention in flight operations following the loss of an Air France A330 over the Atlantic in June 2009. Although the accident remains unexplained, the French investigation has gathered evidence of unreliable airspeed indications before the crash. While the Air France aircraft was fitted with Thales pitot probes, the Australian inquiry notes that the Jetstar A330 - which was operating from Tokyo Narita to Coolangatta - was fitted with Goodrich probes.

These have been "associated with a much lower rate of pitot probe obstruction due to icing" than other probes, says the investigators' report.


In the wake of the Air France crash, European safety authorities instructed operators to ensure that at least two of the three pitot probes were the Goodrich type.

The Jetstar aircraft had been cruising at flight level 390, through a region of cumulonimbus cloud, when there was a "rapid and momentary drop" in the airspeed indication, from about 250kt to 50kt, on the captain's display, says the ATSB. There was also a brief decrease in the standby airspeed indication.

This was immediately followed by automatic disconnection of the autopilot, autothrust and flight directors, and the flight control system reverted to 'alternate' law.

The crew responded with Jetstar's procedures for handling unreliable airspeed, and then re-engaged autopilot and autothrust, although both automatically disconnected for a second time shortly afterwards.

After switching autopilot, and re-engaging autothrust again, the crew checked that all three airspeed indicators were in agreement and continued to monitor them for the rest of the flight. The event had no effect on the aircraft's flight path.

The previous incident to the same aircraft had occurred on 15 March, but was not investigated at the time.

But the ATSB has obtained information showing that the jet had been flying in the vicinity of thunderstorms and that there had been "problems with the incoming airspeed information", including a speed decrease of more than 30kt in 1s on at least two airspeed channels.

"The crew [during the 15 March event] recalled that the captain's airspeed quickly went to zero, the autopilot disconnected and various other messages were presented on the [electronic centralised aircraft monitor]," the ATSB adds.

"The event was over very quickly and there was no ongoing disagreement between the three airspeeds."

Jetstar had started introducing unreliable airspeed training for cockpit crews shortly before the October 2009 incident, although the ATSB points out that many pilots had not received this training at the time of the event.

Crash Rio-Paris : les premières images de l'épave

Les opérations de "remontée de l'avion" et des corps des victimes de l'accident du vol Rio-Paris d'Air France, le 1er juin 2009, pourront être lancées d'ici 3 semaines à un mois, a annoncé lundi la ministre des Transports, après la découverte ce week-end de l'épave.

....Un problème des sondes de mesure de vitesse de type Pitot, fabriquées
par Thales, qui équipaient les A330 et A340, a été avancé comme une
cause possible du crash. Ces petits tubes placés à l'avant de l'appareil
givraient à haute altitude. Le BEA pense cependant que cette
défaillance, si elle est confirmée, ne suffit pas à expliquer
l'accident.....

http://lci.tf1.fr/monde/amerique/2011-04/crash-rio-paris-les-premieres-images-de-l-epave-6356755.html

PARIS—French crash investigators said Monday they are optimistic they will find the data recorders from an Air France jetliner that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean almost two years ago, after locating the wreckage on Sunday.


Parts of the wreckage of an Air France plane that crashed nearly two years ago were located by crash investigators Sunday.

"There is a good chance" of retrieving the recorders, said Jean-Paul Troadec, director of France's Air Accident Investigation Bureau, or BEA, at a news conference on Monday. "We know where the recorders are attached to the fuselage, we are confident we can still find them if they are still attached," he said. He cautioned that they may have been dislodged from the fuselage.

Oceanographers conducting an undersea search on Sunday located the engines, landing gear and part of the fuselage of the Airbus A330 jetliner, which crashed on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 people onboard. Some corpses were also found, Mr. Troadec said.

The search area is 1.2 square kilometers, the BEA said. The current effort, which began ten days ago, is the fourth attempt to find the plane's wreckage. It began only after months of analysis to refine the search area.


The French government says it may have found bodies from the Air France crash two years ago off coast of Brazil. Video courtesy of Reuters and file photo courtesy of AP.

"We were confident that if we were in the right haystack, we'd find parts of the needle," said David Gallo, director of special projects at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., in an interview. Woods Hole is conducting the search for the BEA. "In the last phase, we were in the wrong haystack," Mr. Gallo said.

Searchers will now focus on finding the rear of the fuselage, where its data and voice recorders are located. The so-called black boxes could answer questions about the plane's final minutes.

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Associated Press
Jean-Paul Troadec, director of France's accident investigation agency BEA, shows a picture of the crashed Air France flight 447 landing gear.

The two-engine jetliner disappeared after entering an area of intense storms near the equator. Automated maintenance messages broadcast by the plane indicated it had suffered troubles with speed sensors, which caused some computer systems to disengage. But safety experts have said the problems identified from the data received would not alone have caused the plane to crash.

Investigators now hope the so-called black boxes will give details of how the plane's systems functioned and what the pilots said and did after the speed sensors failed.

"This is an important step," say Jean-Baptiste Audousset, who represents families of victims of the crash and who lost his partner in the crash. "We just want to make sure lessons are learned so that this never ever happens again."

To retrieve the recorders from a depth of 3,900 meters, the BEA is now talking to owners of three ships normally used to lay undersea cables. One could be on site within four weeks, the BEA said. If the boxes are retrieved, they will be sent to Paris for analysis.

If the recorders cannot be located or retrieved, "we will have to get more debris out of the sea," Mr. Troadec said.

Charles Platiau/Reuters
A picture of the landing gear of Air France Flight 447 in the ocean.

Mr. Gallo at Woods Hole said the search team will now use high-definition sonar and photography to document the crash site, which will assist both recovery efforts and analysis of the crash. He said the crash zone if fairly flat and silty, which would make recovery slightly easier. The area lies amid a mountain range that Mr. Gallo said is the most rugged on the planet.

"This is all unknown terrain, in terms of currents and sea floor," Mr. Gallo said.

Woods Hole has conducted some of the most difficult undersea searches ever, including locating the Titanic. It is searching with three Remus robotic submarines of its design that were produced by Hydroid Inc. of Pocasset, Mass. Only six of the highly advanced craft exist.

The search effort was bolstered by data gathered by the BEA, which one year after the crash dropped buoys near the plane's last known position to measure currents. Analysis of the data and modelling by specialists at the University of Massachusetts indicated that previous searches had been focused too far from the likely crash site.

Air France-KLM SA Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said in a statement that the discovery "is good news indeed since it gives hope that information on the causes of the accident, so far unresolved, will be found."

Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath said the discovery "rewards the tremendous efforts of those who never gave up."