Tragedy confirmed
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:32am
The wreckage of the missing Air France jet has been found, however there are no signs of survivors.
A five kilometre path of wreckage has been found in the Atlantic, confirming the missing Air France jet has crashed into the ocean carrying 228 people.
Brazilian Defence Minister Nelson Jobim said on Tuesday the discovery “confirms that the plane went down in that area” hundreds of kilometres from the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.
He said the strip of wreckage included metallic and non-metallic pieces, but did not describe them in detail. No bodies were spotted in the crash of the Airbus in which all aboard are believed to have died.
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A French ship equipped with two mini-submarines is on its way to scour the bottom of the ocean but it is not expected to arrive until tomorrow.The sparse remains – which included an aircraft seat – were located 650km northeast of Brazil’s Fernando do Noronha island on Tuesday.
Meanwhile details of the plane’s final moments are starting to come to light. Apparently the plane sent more than just the single “electrical fault” message which we had been told about until now.
While the cause of the disaster remains a mystery, Air France chief executive Pierre-Henry Gourgeon said the aircraft had sent a series of error messages before it vanished.
“A succession of a dozen technical messages” sent by the aircraft around 0215 GMT showed that “several electrical systems had broken down” which caused a “totally unprecedented situation in the plane,” he said.
“It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came,” he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport
This is an utter tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those on board, and I can only hope that a black box recorder can be salvaged from the wreckage, and that useful information to prevent a similar tragedy in the future can be retrieved from it.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: General News,Samuel's Editorials