Brazil releases photos from Air France crash

Seventeen bodies and debris from the wreckage have been found 600 miles off the northeastern coast of Brazil, roughly 45 miles from the last known contact of Air France flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic on May 31 four hours into its 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

As to the cause of the crash, after much speculation about how an electrical storm could have affected the aircraft, authorities are now focusing on inconsistent airspeed readings sent by the plane in its final minutes of flight.

Investigators were reviewing the actions of a Pitot tube, which supplies information about ambient air pressure, aiding the measurement of air speed, according to numerous news reports.

“There have been situations on Airbus planes, and perhaps on others, where these tubes no longer indicated the airspeed because it entered a humid area, a low-pressure area, an area of turbulence," said Dominique Bussereau, the French secretary of state for transportation.

This means that if the Flight 447 pilots could not read the measurement correctly, the plane could have been flying too slowly or flying too fast, with deadly results. French investigators announced Saturday that the plane had been scheduled to have its Pitot tube replaced, The New York Times reported.

A U.S. Navy team is flying to Brazil today with high-tech underwater listening devices to help the search for the black boxes, which contain the flight data and cockpit voice recorders. These probably have reached the bottom of the ocean, which in that area consists of rocky terrain reaching depths of anywhere between 3,000 to 13,000 feet. The boxes emit signals from a “pinger,” but it will start to fade after 30 days, NYTs reported. The French Navy is sending a nuclear-powered submarine to the area in an effort to detect the signals.

The search operation involves five Brazilian ships, a French frigate, 12 Brazilian and two French planes.

I must admit that I'm impressed with this search operation and what it has accomplished so far given the immense size of the search area, small size of the debris left behind by the plane, and difficulty in identifying objects in water. Technology and determination.

Sources: BNO News, ABC News, The Washington Post, New York Times
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