- Title: FRANCE: Doomed Air France plane was not destroyed in flight
- Date: 3rd July 2009
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (JULY 2, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF LE BOURGET AIRPORT EXTERIORS SHOWING HEADQUARTERS OF BUREAU D'ENQUETES ET D'ANALYSES (BEA) PROJECTION SCREEN SHOWING FIRST REPORT INTO AIR FRANCE FLIGHT 447 JOURNALISTS WIDE VIEW OF NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALAIN BOUILLARD, LEAD INVESTIGATOR FOR FRANCE'S BEA AIR ACCIDENT BOARD, SAYING: "All these examinations permit us to make the following remarks: the plane was not destroyed while it was in flight. It seems to have hit the surface of the water in the direction of flight and with a strong vertical acceleration." WIDE VIEW OF NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALAIN BOUILLARD, LEAD INVESTIGATOR FOR FRANCE'S BEA AIR ACCIDENT BOARD, SAYING: "The autopsies bring the information about how the passengers died. Today, I don't have even the slightest notion of what there is in the autopsy files." WIDE VIEW OF NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALAIN BOUILLARD, LEAD INVESTIGATOR FOR FRANCE'S BEA AIR ACCIDENT BOARD, SAYING: "We find here, structural elements (of the plane), the fin, a piece of the back horizontal plane, a piece of random, one hooding. We also find several pieces of the cabin, the office? with the galleys, the PNC (Commercial Navigating Personnel) rest unit, a door of a toilet, etc, a door of the baggage rack, a piece of a seat, etc. It is to be noted that no life-jacket was found inflated." PROJECTION SCREEN OFFERING MORE DETAILS OF REPORT (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALAIN BOUILLARD, LEAD INVESTIGATOR FOR FRANCE'S BEA AIR ACCIDENT BOARD, SAYING: "We can also establish that at 02:01, the crew tried, without any success and for the third time, to connect to the Dakar controlled ADSC system. So this impossibility of connection probably comes from the problem that the flight plan was not released or from a problem in the configuration of the flight plan, which means that the indication wasn't necessarily right. It was never able to contact to the Dakar system." JOURNALISTS BOUILLARD STANDING AT PODIUM WITH PHILIP SWAN, ADVISER TO BEA AIR ACCIDENT BOARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) PHILIP SWAN, ADVISER TO FRANCE'S BEA AIR ACCIDENT BOARD, SAYING: "The visual examination of the aircraft show that the aircraft was not destroyed in flight. It appears to have struck the surface of the water in line of flight, in a straight line in other words, with a very high vertical acceleration. The elements, as earlier said, the elements that we examined that indicated that it struck belly first, is one element amongst many on aircraft." JOURNALISTS NEWS CONFERENCE ENDING
- Embargoed: 18th July 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: France
- Country: France
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVA6DIF2BEJ0KA5PESRZPYJYL8SP
- Story Text: French aviation accident officials present initial report into last month's Air France crash, saying plane crashed vertically and passengers had no time to react.
The Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic last month hit the water intact and at high speed but was missing for six hours before an emergency was declared, French investigators said on Thursday (July 2).
Evidence from wreckage indicates the plane broke apart when it hit the water, which it struck facing forwards.
"All these examinations permit us to make the following remarks: the plane was not destroyed while it was in flight. It seems to have hit the surface of the water in the direction of flight and with a strong vertical acceleration," said Alain Bouillard, who is leading the investigation on behalf of France's BEA air accident board.
A food galley was found with its shelves compressed towards its base, the floor of a crew rest area was deformed and the tail fin was wrenched off the fuselage -- all suggesting a violent collision with the ocean, officials said.
The cause of the crash is still not known and the BEA reiterated unease that France had not yet been granted access to autopsy reports on bodies taken to Brazil which could provide helpful clues in the investigation.
"Today, I don't have even the slightest notion of what there is in the autopsy files," Bouillard said.
"It is to be noted that no life-jacket was found inflated," he added.
Pilots of flight AF 447 tried three times to connect to the Senegalese capital Dakar by satellite without success.
"It was never able to contact to the Dakar system," Bouillard said.
It was not until 0830 GMT, more than six hours after a flurry of error messages from the plane's electronic systems, that the plane was officially declared missing by Spain whose airspace it was due to cross en route to France.
Aviation officials say it is not uncommon for planes to be out of reach temporarily while crossing the stormy expanse of ocean where the jet crashed, killing all 228 people on board.
But advisor to the BEA, Philip Swan, warned there were several elements to the investigation, each offering further clues.
"The elements that we examined that indicated that it struck belly first, is one element amongst many on aircraft," he said.
Bouillard said the search for the flight recorders, or black boxes, from the Airbus A330 aircraft would continue until July 10. The recorders emit a signal for around 30 days.
After that, France will continue to probe the seabed with remote sonars until August 15.
Despite the disaster, investigators said they did not see any wider concerns that would indicate the need to ground Airbus A330 aircraft. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
