June 9 (Bloomberg) — Brazil’s military recovered wreckage from Air France flight 447 that may indicate what caused the jet to plunge into the Atlantic Ocean last week, as search teams pulled more bodies from the water.
“Hundreds of pieces of the crashed plane have been retrieved,” Brazilian Air Force Colonel Henry Munhoz told reporters yesterday. While Munhoz declined to comment on reports the plane’s tail fin was found, a piece of debris in the shape of a tail fin was retrieved by search teams.
Brazilian and French teams yesterday pulled eight bodies from the ocean, taking the total to 24. The Airbus SAS A330-200 went down June 1 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, carrying 216 passengers and 12 crewmembers. There were no survivors.
French ships and submarines equipped with underwater listening devices are trying to locate the jet’s flight data recorders, known as black boxes, which may provide clues as to what caused the crash.
Investigators are examining whether ice damage or the obstruction of the jet’s airspeed sensors caused unreliable readings, which may have contributed to the accident. Air France says it began replacing the component with a more ice-resistant version in late April, 18 months after Airbus advised customers to make the switch. Read More