Air France 447 - Recovered Debris From Jet May Ease Data Search
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SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Brazilian divers recovered eight more bodies and a distinctive red- and blue-striped tail section of the Air France jetliner that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean last week, a find that may help investigators narrow the hunt for the plane’s voice and data recorders.
The bodies pulled from the sea on Monday afternoon bring the total to 24, Brazilian military officers said. All 228 people aboard the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris are presumed dead.
The bodies were found “close” to where previous ones were picked up, around 275 miles from the São Pedro and São Paulo islands, Capt. Giucemar Tabosa of the Brazilian Navy said at a news conference in Recife.
They will be brought to Brazil’s mainland for examination by forensic and medical teams as soon as possible, Captain Tabosa said. The 16 found over the weekend, revised from 17, were already on their way.
With the reason for the crash still unknown, the autopsies may provide clues. Soot in windpipes or signs of carbon-monoxide poisoning in blood, for example, would indicate that there had been an on-board fire.
But while the military stressed that its priority was recovering bodies, the discovery of the vertical stabilizer from the tail of the Airbus A330 could help decipher what caused the relatively new plane to disappear shortly before midnight on May 31.
Military officials provided no details about the parts found, but photographs released Monday showed divers and sailors on a rubber dinghy working with what appeared to be the vertical stabilizer and rudder of the plane’s tail section.
The part, bearing the trademark stripes and logo of Air France, bore no evident burn marks and had retained its triangular shape, save for a missing chunk where it appeared to have been torn from the body of the plane.
The flight recorders are generally kept in the tail section of the plane, so the discovery could help narrow the search in the ocean’s deep waters. The flight recorders represent investigators’ best hopes for discovering why the plane went down in stormy, turbulent weather.
Experts said the photos show two visible areas of damage where the stabilizer attaches to the fuselage, and investigators will try to determine if this damage occurred in the air or when the part hit the water. The inspection could also show if the stabilizer came off while the plane was moving forward or in some other direction. If the separation occurred on impact with the water, knowing which part hit first could prove important.
Another photograph shows recovered pieces of internal components of the plane, including wiring, ductwork and some structural material, but notably no signs of fire or charring.
However, Dr. John Hansman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at M.I.T., warned that it would be premature to draw conclusions with most of the plane yet to be found.
“This is a puzzle, and you’re collecting pieces of the puzzle,” he said. “We shouldn’t be able to figure it out with just a couple of pieces.”
A team of American Navy searchers is being flown in along with two devices that can detect electronic signals to a depth of 20,000 feet, according to the Pentagon, The Associated Press reported. They will be used to listen for transmissions from the so-called black boxes, which are programmed to emit signals for at least three more weeks.
Brazilian officials said the area where the bodies were recovered, now the center of the search area, is about 11,500 feet deep.
The French, who are in charge of the investigation, are sending a nuclear submarine to help search for the black box, Captain Tabosa said.
Officials said that five ships and 14 airplanes were scouring that area and adjacent ones.
“The government is going to continue with its efforts, via the navy and via the air force, to find, if possible, all the bodies, because we know what it means for a family to receive the remains of a missing loved one,” said Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “At this painful time, it won’t solve the problem, but it is an immense comfort to a family knowing that it is burying its loved one.”
Andrew Downie reported from São Paulo, Brazil, and Christine Negroni from Greenwich, Conn. Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York.
