Air France Plane Crash Still a Mystery, But Clues Remain

Paris, FRThe Air France plane crash that took more than 200 lives and continues to mystify investigators sorting through bodies and debris from the airplane crash June 1st is no closer to being resolved. The black box has not been found. Investigations into plane crashes are complex, and can take years.

However, there have been some clues.

Of the 49 victims that have been found so far post mortems on 16 of the bodies have revealed some revealing clues, according to a June 15th summary in The Telegraph, which is based in the UK.

No water was found in the lungs of the victims. That supports the theory that the passengers and crew were dead before they hit the water. Water present in the lungs would have indicated drowning, the Telegraph says.

The victim's clothing had been stripped off, suggesting that a sudden loss of air pressure inside the cabin, or the velocity of a fall from 35,000 feet after a potential breaking-up of the plane, would have been responsible for stripping off exposed fabric.

There were no burn marks found, or smoke found in the lungs. That suggests an absence of any kind of explosion or fire.

The debris field also supports the theory that the doomed Airbus A330 that went down in heavy weather June 1st broke up in mid-air. Two trails of bodies were found in the ocean, each trail more than 50 miles apart.

Whatever the reason, or reasons for the catastrophic plane crash investigators assume it must have been horrific and fast, given the lack of any mayday call from the pilots of the doomed Air France jetliner before it plunged into the sea.

There were 228 people on board the doomed plane.

The Telegraph has been reporting that investigators have been looking at inconsistent readings from airspeed sensors, which could have had a detrimental effect on the flight computers employed by the technologically-advanced plane, promoting the pilots to fly either too fast, or too slow into a worsening storm over the ocean.

In the wake of the tragedy Air France had promised to replace airspeed sensors on its fleet. The Telegraph reported June 15th that according to the pilot's union, sensors on all 34 jets in the Air France fleet had been replaced during the weekend of June 13th.

Meanwhile investigators into the airplane crash are still searching for the black box from the aircraft, concentrating on an area about 600 miles off the coast of northern Brazil where the plane is believed to have gone down.

The voice and data recorder, which is about the size of a breadbox and orange in color, emits a unique electronic ping about every second. At too high a frequency for the human ear to detect, the sound is designed to cut through the various other sounds inherent with the ocean for pickup on special underwater microphones.

Search teams on Monday detected a faint signal in the general vicinity where the plane went down, but according to a June 23rd update in the New York Times French investigators were holding out little hope they would find the elusive black box in time.

A French military watercraft, the Pourquoi Pas, was trawling the area where the signal was last detected early this week. When a sound is detected, a mini-sub is dispatched to physically comb the ocean floor. Submarines are also outfitted with underwater microphones to detect underwater sounds.

However, sounds have been fleeting and intermittent. They can also be altered by things such as salt content. A minisub had been combing the ocean floor since Monday—when the faint signal was first detected—but by mid-week the flight data recorder had still not been found.

Flight data recorders are designed to emit ping sounders for 30 days, after which time the odds of locating the black box drops considerably. Given the wealth of data contained in the device, investigators are hoping to find it in time. There is also the distinct possibility that the pingers may have become separated from the actual black box by the force of impact with the water.

The flight data recorder would be expected to contain information on the Airbus A330's altitude, airspeed and heading, as well as actual voice recordings from the cockpit—and would go far in helping investigators determine the actual, or probable cause of the plane crash. Plane crashes, as horrific as they are, are also unique. No two plane crashes are alike and investigators would prefer to base their assumptions on fact, rather than supposition. A factual conclusion as to what caused the plane to go down will be useful in any pending, or future litigation stemming from the deaths of 228 passengers and crew.
But time is running out and the search area is daunting: where the Air France jet is presumed to have crashed, the ocean floor is rugged and depths can reach two-and-one-half miles. A steep challenge, that gets steeper with every passing day.