Scroll down for updates. Last updated June 10 at 12:30 p.m. This piece will be updated several times a day.

Forty-one bodies have been found in the Atlantic thus far, two on Saturday, 14 on Sunday, eight on Monday, and 17 on Tuesday, all confirmed to have been on Air France Flight 447, Brazilian officials said Wednesday. Four have been confirmed male and four female.

The first set of bodies were found about 200 miles off the coast of the Saint Peter and Saint Paul archipelago. Tuesday’s findings were discovered 50 miles away.

Sixteen of the 41 bodies found will reach Recife today. The remains will be shipped to the Legal Medical Institute in Brasilia for investigation and identification, CNN reports. DNA samples must be taken from the relatives of the deceased to help with the investigation

The bodies of the other 25 found victims will go through the same process on Thursday, CNN reports.

Investigators hope they can use dental records and DNA samples to identify each of the found bodies.

Officials say the location of the found remains is not an indicator of the crash site, since the current in the area is very strong the bodies would no doubt have drifted far away since Monday. They are however unsure exactly how far the bodies drifted.

Just days before the first bodies were discovered, officials told families the possibility of finding any remains were extremely low. Relatives are now increasingly hopeful they will at least be reunited with their lost kin.

One CNN reporter noted that the bodies looked bloated after days of floating in the ocean.

Other items were recovered as well, about 700 miles off the coast of Brazil. They include part of the plane’s wing and tail, two seats, luggage, a life vest and a leather bag with a Flight 447 boarding pass still inside, according to CNN.

An oxygen mask was also found, which could reinforce the automated message’s claim that the plane was losing cabin pressure.

Brazilian officials say their number one priority is to find as many bodies as possible and to return them to grieving families. They are also placing much importance on finding pieces of the plane, which they say will aid in the crash investigation.

French nuclear sub arrives

France deployed a nuclear sub, the Emeraude, to help find the sunken black boxes. The sub arrived Wednesday and is actively searching for the downed plane.

Also, two American acoustic devices are to be placed aboard two French ships. The devices will try to pick up signals from the plane’s sunken recorders, still pinging at the bottom of the ocean.

The devices can search for the beacons to a maximum of 20,000 feet.

Improper speed could be plane crash culprit

Air France and French officials are in charge of finding out what caused the Air France plane to plunge into the Atlantic without any manual warning. It is currently being speculated that the plane broke up in flight.

However without the black boxes, investigators may never know for certain why the plane crashed.

The plane sent out four minutes of automated messages before going down. The messages suggest the plane may have been flying at an improper speed through a heavy storm, possibly due to malfunctioning Pitot tubes. Air France will soon replace Pitot tubes on all of its medium- and long-haul Airbus jets.

Malfunctioning Pitot tubes could have caused the Air France airliner to decelerate and accelerate too rapidly for a storm of such magnitude. The storm faced by the plane, reportedly, sucked up water from the ocean below with 100 mph updrafts. The wet air then rapidly froze at the plane’s high altitude, causing major turbulence and possibly resulting in the Pitot tubes sending improper speed readings to the jet’s on board computers.

Air France told its pilots’ unions that no Airbus A330 or A340 will take off unless two of three Pitot tubes have been replaced, CNN reports.

Plane may have broken up in-air

CBC reports the Brazilian navy has found a large piece of the tail of Flight 447. The navy revealed the vertical stabilizer – which forms part of the tail -was recovered whole in the ocean.

William Waldock, an air crash investigation professor told the Associated Press that piece has what looked like lateral damage. This would reinforce the theory that the plane broke up in-air.

“If it hits intact, everything shatters in tiny pieces,” said Waldock, CBC reports. Further examining the piece can indicate from which direction the force that caused the stabilizer to detach from the Airbus came.

As questions about Airbus A330 safety arise, several airlines have rushed to its defense.

“It is a very robust airplane. It has been flying for many years, clocking hundreds of millions of hours and there is absolutely no reason why there should be any question over this plane. It is one of the best flying today,” said Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, at a conference in Kuala Lumpur.

However on Wednesday, an Airbus A320 flying from the Canary Islands to Olso, Norway had to make an emergency landing after the pilot detected a “problem with the engine.” There were reportedly 189 passengers on board, none of whom were injured. All are expected to take another flight, though many will perhaps inquire about the make and model of their new plane.

Scroll down for updates. Last updated on June 6 at 12:01 a.m.

French authorities are urging searchers to show “extreme prudence” before identifying wreckage found in the Atlantic as being from Air France Flight 447, after Brazilian workers incorrectly publicized they had found debris from the missing plane Thursday.

New reports indicate that Brazil’s declaration that debris from the missing Airbus A330 had been found was premature, and as of yet no official evidence has been retrieved from the missing plane, CBC reports.

French Transportation Minister Dominique Bussereau said he regretted Brazilian search teams had publicized a recovery of debris from the plane Thursday. The recovered wooden cargo pallet was never on the plane, officials said. They’ve referred to the pallet as “sea trash,” of which there is a lot floating around in the ocean.

“It has been verified that the material did not belong to the plane,” said Ramon Borges Cardoso, general director of the Brazilian Aerospace Control Department, in Recife, Brazil, CNN reports. “It is a pallet of wood that is utilized for transport. It is used in planes, but on this flight to Paris, there was no wooden pallet.”

Bussereau later expressed the need for caution. “French authorities have been saying for several days that we have to be extremely prudent,” he said. “Our planes and naval ships have seen nothing.”

Earlier in the week searchers found two trails of wreckage, about 56 miles from one another. The debris included a life vest, pieces of metal, a jet seat, a 12 mile oil slick and what is believed to be a 23-foot piece of the plane. The items were picked up by helicopters and dropped onto three Brazilian naval vessels.

It has not yet been confirmed that any of these materials are from the missing plane, though it has been confirmed, by Cardoso, that the oil slicks are not. He said the slicks are too big and the quantity of oil found exceeded the amount on the plane, according to CNN.

“No material from the airplane was picked up,” he later added.

Probability of finding bodies low

Cardoso said Brazilian teams are focused on finding the bodies of the Flight 447 victims, though the likelihood of retrieval has decreased. “With every moment, the probability of finding the bodies decreases because more than 100 hours have passed since the accident and that possibility is more remote each time,” he said.

The black boxes have not yet been found. Without them investigators may never know exactly what happened to the plane and whether it was weather, electrical failure, foul play, or a combination that brought down the missing plane.

Currently, Bussereau said, French teams are focused on finding the underwater wreckage and the recorders. He added that with each passing day, the wreckage underwater will continue to sink into the mountainous underwater terrain and spread out as currents in the area are very strong.

Two mini-submarines will be deployed next week to aid in the investigation, one of which, the Nautile, was used to search the wreckage of the Titanic.

Speculation surrounding crash intensifies

A French agency investigating the crash cited brutal turbulence and an inconsistency in the speed readings as a probable factor in the crash, CBC reports.

Le Monde newspaper released a report yesterday claiming that the pilots of Flight 447 may have been flying at an incorrect speed through violent weather. According to the agency’s investigation, a plane must be flying at just the right speed through harsh conditions, too slow and the pilot could lose control, too fast and the plane could break apart.

However, it is not known at which speed the plane was traversing through the storm. The French Accident Investigation Agency said Thursday that the automated messages transmitted by the plane did not indicate speed, but did show conflicting readings on board, CBC reports.

Airbus recently issued reminders to pilots explaining what to do when on-air instruments give conflicting read-outs. They said the reminder in no way indicates that improper speed was the official cause of the Air France crash.

It is not officially known what caused the plane to crash and what role, if any, weather played in the tragedy.

Air France Flight 447 disappeared early Monday after submitting four minutes of automated messages that indicated electrical failure and a loss of cabin pressure. It is believed the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people on board.

Updates:

CBC reports meteorologists say Air France Flight 447 entered a storm with 100 mph updrafts. The updrafts acted like a vacuum, sucking water up from the Atlantic, thousands of feet below. The moist air then quickly rose up to the plane’s altitude and immediately froze in the -40 F conditions.

The intense updraft would have also caused brutal turbulence.

Investigators are reportedly now checking whether the plane’s external probe that measures air pressure may have froze over, possibly because of the updraft, CBC reports.

Cardoso said debris believed to be from the plane has been spotted (the two wreckage trails found earlier) but cannot yet be retrieved or verified due to poor visibility and conditions, CBC reports.

“Aircraft are making visual recognitions on the different contacts but currently I am not sure that those contacts are really part of the aircraft,” said French air force Colonel Thierry Bon, reinforcing Cardoso’s claim.

The French navy announced it will be sending a nuclear submarine, the Emeraude, to aid other French and Brazilian vessels in the search. French Defense Minister Herve Morin said the Emeraude is equipped with surveillance apparatus that may help find the crashed plane’s recorder, according to CBC.

The sub isn’t expected to arrive on the scene until next week.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s Air Force flew some of the victims’ families from Rio to Recife so they could take a tour and ask any questions they may have had. Any remains found will be taken to the base in Recife, a northeastern Brazilian city.

Much has been made of French prosecutors opening a manslaughter probe into the case. This is a routine occurence when French citizens die overseas.

Evening:

CNN reports a huge development. Apparently at least 12 planes traversed the sky along with Air France Flight 447, around the same time and in the same area, and none reported any seriously foul weather conditions.

Officials are now speculating that mechanical errors were the main cause of the crash, though weather is still thought to have played a part. One of the main crash theories is that the plane flew through bad weather at an improper speed, even though none of the dozen aircraft reported serious weather problems.

Aviation officials say that weather could still have played a part in the crash since patterns change very suddenly in the region and vary through short distances.

It has not yet been reported whether any of the other planes, besides the Air Comet plane headed by two Spanish pilots, saw Air France plunge into the Atlantic early Monday morning. Aviation officials also say that no single issue could have caused the crash of such a major airliner. Many things would have had to have taken place both on board and in the plane’s surroundings for it to die out and crash so suddenly.

The other planes landed safely at their destinations.

Scroll down for updates.

French investigators say they are not optimistic the black box recorders from Air France Flight 447, now buried deep in the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean, may ever be found, CBC reports.

Speaking at a press conference Wednesday Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of France’s accident investigation agency, told reporters that planes in the area had not yet picked up any signals from the beacons attached to the recorders. The beacons can only transmit electronic indicators for 30 days.

“We may be unable to find the black boxes due to circumstance and logistics,” said Arslanian, citing the underwater area’s mountainous landscape.

“This catastrophe – which is the worst that our country has witnessed in terms of aviation, took place in a very difficult region… so the investigation will not be easy… but we are not giving up” he added later, CBC reports. Experts say the underwater terrain could make this one of the most difficult recovery missions cine the Titanic.

French and Brazilian forces have deployed ships to survey the area. France has sent a research ship equipped with two mini-submarines that will be used to recover the wreckage from the ocean’s floor, in what is now being called a navy operation. Four Brazilian Navy ships carrying recovery equipment and divers will reach the site today. The ships are traversing rough waters to reach the site.

A U.S. navy surveillance plane is also aiding in the search.

CBC reports the accident agency will submit a report by month’s end, according to Alain Bouillard, who is leading the exploration. The report will be submitted regardless of whether the black boxes are found.

Experts explore possibilities

According to several experts it is highly unlikely the recorders were destroyed, as they are designed to survive high impact and intense underwater pressure and conditions.

Arslanian said the end result of the investigation could however prove to be disappointing. “I cannot rule out the possibility that we might end up with a finding that is relatively unsatisfactory in terms of certainty,” he said.

Understanding exactly what caused the plane to crash will be very difficult without the recorders, which, if found, will hopefully provide some clues as to what happened on board. Without the recorders however it is possible the cause of the crash may never be revealed.

Arslanian also told reporters that a team is currently studying the Airbus’s maintenance records and there are so far no indications that anything was wrong with the jet before it took off.

Investigators are still speculating about the conditions under which the plane plunged into the Atlantic. They have not yet decided whether the plane hit the water intact or broke up in air before impact.

Air France Flight 447 disappeared Monday while on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris after sending out a series of automated messages indicating electrical failures. No manual distress signals were sent by the pilot.

On Tuesday it was confirmed the plane crashed in the ocean after investigators spotted a trail of plane debris in the water 400 miles off the coast of the Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha islands. The debris was later confirmed to have belonged to the missing plane.

It is believed that all 228 people on board Flight 447 died in the crash. A memorial service took place Wednesday at Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and First Lady Carla Bruni were in attendance.

Click here to read yesterday’s developments.

Updates:

Brazilian Air Force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral says search planes have located more debris, including an approximately 23-foot long piece of the plane, BBC reports.

The site, about 56 miles south of the other field of wreckage, contains 10 metal objects scattered in a three mile radius and an oil slick that has spread about 12 miles, Amaral said.

Soon after that announcement, French officials provided their first update at a press conference that took place at an airport north of Paris. Arslanian said signals from the black boxes have not yet been picked up.

In order to find the capture the low frequency signals he says the team will have to narrow their search to a very limited range. Officials are still not hopeful the recorders will ever be found.

BBC reports Brazil has taken charge of the search for the wreckage, while France will focus on the crash investigation. French and Brazilian ships, struggling to navigate through high seas, have not yet arrived at the site.

Air France has said it received a bomb threat directed towards a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Paris on May 27, just a few days before Flight 447 went missing, The Economic Times reports. There seems to be no connection between the threat (which was rendered fake after teams searched the plane) and Flight 447′s disappearance.

Experts still speculate that several factors contributed to the plane’s crash, since being struck by lightning alone would not have been enough to bring down the Airbus. Hail, cyclonic weather patterns and severe winds could have all potentially played a part in the disaster.

Some are also wondering whether the chief pilot was flying the plane when the problems arose, since pilots on long-distance flights take turns in order to stay alert and focused.

Memorial service begins

Back in Paris, hundreds of mourners gathered at Notre Dame Cathedral for today’s private memorial service. The cathedral’s bell tolled 228 times, once for each victim of the tragic Flight 447 crash.

The CBC reports French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke with the victims’ family members in private at the ceremony. Sarkozy reportedly said arrangements will be made for the families to fly over the debris and suspected crash site if it is something they feel necessary during the grieving process.

The Pope sent a message of condolence to the mourners. It was played at the memorial service.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/features/world-news/flight-447s-black-boxes-may-never-be-found-investigators-say/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/features/world-news/air-france-flight-vanishes-over-atlantic-with-228-people-on-board/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/features/world-news/air-france-flight-vanishes-over-atlantic-with-228-people-on-board/#comments Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:55:41 +0000 Sachin Seth http://blastmagazine.com/?p=15578

Updates will be available at the bottom of the page as they come in.

Air France flight 447 carrying 228 passengers and crew vanished over the Atlantic Ocean after reporting a short circuit caused by a possible lightning strike, the BBC reports.

The plane was traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. At about 10:14 p.m. EST, just four hours after taking off from Rio, the plane sent an automatic message reporting electrical problems as it flew through a storm. When the plane lost contact it was nearly 190 miles off the coast of the north-east Brazilian city of Natal, well over the Atlantic.

Since the plane went missing over the ocean, rescue forces must search an encompassing chunk of sea, making the task much more difficult.

Brazil’s Air Force confirmed that it had deployed planes to search for the missing Airbus 330-200 around 6:17 a.m. EST. The Air Force’s spokesman, Col. Henry Munhoz, told Brazilian TV the last radar contact with the flight was just after it passed over the Fernando de Noronha islands, about 220 miles off the coast of Brazil, around 9:33 p.m. EST.

A half hour later, according to Air France, the plane jetted through a “thunderous zone” and experienced strong turbulence. Fifteen minutes later, at 10:14 p.m. EST, the plane sent out an automated message reporting electrical circuit malfunction.

Five hours passed before the situation was deemed serious by Air France, just two hours before the flight was scheduled to land in Paris. A crisis center was set up at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport and at 5:35 a.m. EST, the plane was announced missing by Air France officials.

The search began shortly after, off the coast of the Fernando de Noronha islands, and it is now being speculated that the electrical failure was caused by a possible lightning strike.

French Ecology minister Jean-Louis Borloo ruled out hijacking as a possibility. He also said that if the plane had survived the lightning strike and electrical failures to stay in flight, the Airbus would have, by now, run out of fuel somewhere over the Atlantic.

A lightning strike should not, technically speaking, be able to cause the crash of a modern Airbus.

“We must now envisage the most tragic scenario,” he said.

ONGOING UPDATES: Air France has set up a call center for those who need it: 0800 800 812 in France and +33 157021055 internationally.

France’s ambassador to Senegal told CNN that French military aircraft has been deployed to search the coast of the west African nation.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, according to a statement from his office, asked his government to “implement every effort to find the plane.”

Airbus 330-200′s are commonly requested because of their versatility. The planes boast advanced engines made by General Electric.

According to the Times Online, no commercial flight has been lost because of lightning in more than 40 years. The Times believes that “brutal freak turbulence,” not lightning, was the most probable cause of the flight’s problems.

According to a recent U.S. study, every commercial airliner is struck by lightning at least once a year, the Times reports.

Click here to see BBC’s visual representation of the flight’s path.

There were 126 men, 82 women and seven children, including one baby, on board the flight. According to ABC, hope is now fading for the successful rescue of any of the passengers or crew.

AP conducted an interview with aviation expert Chris Yates who believes”potentially [the plane] went down very quickly and so quickly that the pilots on board didn’t have a chance to make that emergency call.”

He also said that the likely conclusion to be drawn in this situation is “that something catastrophic happened on board that has caused this airplane to ditch in a controlled or an uncontrolled fashion.”

According to USA Today, an Air France spokesman has confirmed to Voice of America that the plane hit heavy turbulence and transmitted a number of automatic messages before vanishing. He added, “around 7:00 [a.m.] Paris time, it was clear that the plane was in deep trouble.”

The CBC acknowledges conflicting information regarding the presumed location of the missing plane. They report that while Brazil’s forces believe it to be near the Fernando de Norenha islands about 220 miles off the coast of Brazil, other reports suggest that the plane may have been deeper into its flight path. French rescue aircrafts are looking for the lost plane off the coast of Dakar, Senegal.

David Learmount, safety editor of “Flight International” told Bloomberg he suspects contributing events took place on the airliner before it vanished.

“Modern airliners do not just go missing. They were en route and should have been fine,” he said. “The question is, what happened after the electrical fault, because a short circuit in itself should not bring down a plane. That would be different if there was a fire, for example.”

The following revised list of numbers and countries was released by Air France and includes all passengers and crew on board: 71 France, 59 Brazil, 26 Germany, nine Italy, nine China, six Switzerland, five Britain, five Lebanon, four Hungary, three Norway, three Slovakia, three Sweden, two Spain, two Morocco, two U.S., two Poland, and single passengers from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Gambia, Iceland, Holland, Philippines, Romania, Russia, South Africa and Turkey.

As time progresses, chances of recovery or survival are fading. “We can fear the worst,” said France’s transportation minister, Dominique Bussereau.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is also coming to terms with the tragedy. He met with press at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport after talking to familes of the lost passengers.

“I told them the truth, which is that the prospects of finding any survivors are very slim,” he said.

Various sources are confirming that the chances of there being any survivors of Air France flight 447 are slim at best. The last time 200+ people were killed in a plane crash was on November 12, 2001, when an American Airlines jet crashed in Queens, New York, killing all 260 on board and five on the ground.

Strangely, if you type “Air France 447″ into Google, it says the flight is on schedule to arrive at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport at 11:15 a.m.

EVENING: BBC reports that rescue teams have narrowed their search area to a few nautical miles. At this time, nearly 24 hours after the plane’s disappearance, there is a very, very slim chance of any survivors.

The accident apparently took place in a turbulent area known as the Intertropical Convergence zone near the equator. The zone is actually feared by sailors and aviators, and is commonly known as the “pot au noir” or “murky cauldron.”

BBC spoke with meteorologist Pierre Lasnais who said the area “is prone to storms and lightning, but also to mini-cyclonic phenomena, which create extremely strong up currents, as well as hail stones that can be bigger than tennis-balls.”

“It’s possible for a plane to be exposed to lightning, and at the same to be caught in an up current which can reach speeds of 200 km/h,” he told BBC. “You can imagine the effect that has on a plane – complete depressurisation of course, almost uncontrollable.”

Air France CEO acknowledges that planed probably crashed in Atlantic due to heavy turbulence, CNN reports.

Click here for June 2 updates.

As a university student training to be part of the “creative class”, I’m not a fan of routine or content with the prospect of “settling down” in one city doing the same thing for the rest of my life. In my opinion, most people really are part of the “creative class”, mostly because I don’t think your job is what defines who you are. You, as a person, socially, your dreams and objectives, that’s what defines you. Then whether or not you actually try to meet those goals defines your drive and character, the strength of your ambition and your will. And that ultimately is who you are.

So anyway, back to what I was saying. It’s my goal in life to be a journalist who gets to travel all over the world. Money isn’t a big issue for me since I’d probably use the extra money I would make in another field traveling anyway. This way I get to do two things I love and get paid for it.

This morning I was looking at the Atlantic Monthly’s website, reading the food section and some of the correspondent’s articles. It’s something I’d highly recommend. The Atlantic has some amazingly interesting stuff.

I came across a story about the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), a biannual ranking of top financial centers across the globe using points, based on surveys taken by financial experts. The Index is produced for the City of London and guess what? London is numero uno.

New York is naturally second, and both London and New York have a commanding lead of more than 100 points over third place Singapore. It’s a possibility the two western powerhouses could see some competition for the top spot from cities like Singapore and Hong Kong (ranked fourth, just three points behind Singapore) in the future, but for now they are pretty safe as the one-two western punch.

Since the last Index was published nearly six months ago, New York and London have lost fewer points than both Singapore and Hong Kong. Some Asian cities have taken a large hit, namely Tokyo, which fell from a seven ranking to a 15 and lost 31 points, the largest drop in the top 20. Some cities, like Boston, Dublin, Toronto and Guernsey, have even capitalized on the losses of others, rising in the rankings despite losing points.

Overall, I think this Index is a pretty interesting way of ranking top financial cities in the world. And it got me thinking about traveling and ultimately, trying to visit most of the world’s richest in my lifetime. Though the rankings will change from year to year, that just means I have to travel more. I’ve got no problem with that.

It’s also being speculated, by Jeffrey Garten at the Financial Times, that once the global recovery begins New York and London will see a tag-team emerge in the east, something he’s dubbed ShangKong, which to me sounds like either a Mortal Kombat villain or some sort of Godzilla-like terrorizer. He postulates that New York and London, let’s call that YorkDon in honor of Garten, will be reeling from this crisis for years, while ShangKong will recover quicker. YorkDon will have to tend to more problems, more industries and more sectors while ShangKong will be able to use its rising economic status to overtake and crush YorkDon.

Talking about cities like this has always wanted to make me travel and visit them. Hearing the word Shanghai spoken or seeing it written doesn’t come close to seeing a photo of the city’s inner core at night, which doesn’t come close to actually being there. Regardless of the ranking of cities like London, Tokyo and ShangKong, I’ll try to make my way through them one by one as I get older.

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