Missing Air France jet sent 24 error messages in final minutes
Airbus says the probe found the flight received inconsistent readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.
By Agencies |
PARIS: The Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic sent out 24 automatic error messages in its final moments as its systems -- including the autopilot -- shut down, investigators said on Saturday.
The director of the French air accident investigation agency, Paul-Louis Arslanian, said that it was impossible to tell from the signals whether the doomed crew had shut off the autopilot or whether it cut out.
Arslanian said it was not clear if the autopilot had been switched off by the pilots or had stopped working because it received conflicting airspeed readings.
Plane manufacturer Airbus says the probe found the flight received inconsistent readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.
Probe chief Alain Bouillard says "we also saw messages that show the automatic pilot wasn't working."
Arslanian says investigators are searching a zone of several hundred square miles for the debris.
Bad weather and poor visibility hampered the ongoing search on Friday for the wreckage of the ill-fated Airbus A330-200, which vanished early Monday on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
An apparent breakthrough in the investigation fell through late on Thursday when a Brazilian official said debris fetched from the sea was not from the airliner, as they had earlier believed.
Still rescue teams remained convinced that other debris spotted at sea did belong to the missing plane, said Brigadier Ramon Cardoso, director of the Brazilian Air Force's Airspace Control Department.
"We have located kerosene stains, a seat, some fragments of the aircraft, wires and pieces of the internal part of the plane," said Cardoso.
However, he said those fragments had already been carried off by strong currents and an attempt was now being made to retrieve them.
Air France said Friday that, because of the accident, it will redesignate its route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Formerly designated as flight AF 447, the route will be known as AF 445 starting on Sunday, an Air France spokesman told DPA.
The director of the French air accident investigation agency, Paul-Louis Arslanian, said that it was impossible to tell from the signals whether the doomed crew had shut off the autopilot or whether it cut out.
Arslanian said it was not clear if the autopilot had been switched off by the pilots or had stopped working because it received conflicting airspeed readings.
Plane manufacturer Airbus says the probe found the flight received inconsistent readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.
Probe chief Alain Bouillard says "we also saw messages that show the automatic pilot wasn't working."
Arslanian says investigators are searching a zone of several hundred square miles for the debris.
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Bad weather and poor visibility hampered the ongoing search on Friday for the wreckage of the ill-fated Airbus A330-200, which vanished early Monday on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
An apparent breakthrough in the investigation fell through late on Thursday when a Brazilian official said debris fetched from the sea was not from the airliner, as they had earlier believed.
Still rescue teams remained convinced that other debris spotted at sea did belong to the missing plane, said Brigadier Ramon Cardoso, director of the Brazilian Air Force's Airspace Control Department.
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"We have located kerosene stains, a seat, some fragments of the aircraft, wires and pieces of the internal part of the plane," said Cardoso.
However, he said those fragments had already been carried off by strong currents and an attempt was now being made to retrieve them.
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Air France said Friday that, because of the accident, it will redesignate its route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Formerly designated as flight AF 447, the route will be known as AF 445 starting on Sunday, an Air France spokesman told DPA.
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