- Title: FRANCE/FILE: Paris memorial marks anniversary of Air France crash from Brazil
- Date: 2nd June 2010
- Summary: FERNANDO DE NORONHA, BRAZIL (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (FILE - JUNE 9, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF AIR FORCE HELICOPTER LANDING WITH BODIES OF AIR FRANCE CRASH VICTIMS VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS REMOVING BODIES FROM HELICOPTER
- Embargoed: 17th June 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Transport
- Reuters ID: LVAQ0S2X05MMMHH5JLUHLVFZIEA
- Story Text: A year after the crash, relatives of the victims are still to be told why exactly the airliner plunged into the Atlantic.
Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris hit the ocean during a storm on June 1 last year, killing 228 people, and since then a search has been under way for clues to the cause of the accident.
A year on, a memorial was unveiled on Tuesday (June 1) in Paris' Pere Lachaise cemetery. It consisted of a glass wall with 228 engraved birds for each victim.
Earlier in the day, over 1000 relatives gathered in eastern Paris for a private commemorative ceremony closed to the media.
"One year after the brutal disappearance of our 228 parents, friends and colleagues on board the Air France flight AF447, we are here to remember and share the emotions that we all feel because of this disaster," said Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the head of Air-France KLM, in his address to the relatives.
He also thanked French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau for attending, adding; "you represent the determination of the French state to seek the elements which could help establish the causes of this disaster which, up until today, cannot be explained."
French-led searches for the black box recorders were recently suspended, however, after failing to locate the devices.
Speculation about the cause of the crash has focused on possible icing of the aircraft's speed sensors, which appeared to give inconsistent readings seconds before the plane vanished.
Black box flight recorders are designed to emit homing signals for around 30 days, and two sophisticated salvage vessels have been scouring a 3,000-square-km area to try to locate those belonging to the Airbus A330. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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