Air France Flight 447 Plunged Vertically Into Ocean At High Speed

by alia_d | July 2, 2009 at 09:00 am

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French officials believe that Air France Flight 447, which crashed on June 1st, plunged vertically into the Atlantic Ocean, instead of breaking apart in midair.

Investigators previously believed that Air France Flight 447 broke apart in the midair before hitting the Atlantic Ocean, as bodies were found 85 kilometers apart and with multiple fractures, among other clues. However, no large pieces of the Airbus 330 have been found yet. Combined with other clues, this has led investigators to believe that the airplane probably plunged vertically into the Atlantic Ocean.

BEA, the French air investigation agency presented its findings at a press conference on Thursday, July 1.

At the press conference, the Lead Investigator Alain Bouillard explained that, "In the absence of the flight recorders, it is extremely difficult to draw conclusions" about what happened between the time the plan was 35,000 feet in the air and when it hit the surface of the water.

Bouillard said that, instead of being destroyed in flight, "The plane seems to have hit the surface of the water on its flight trajectory with a strong vertical acceleration."

Based on visual study of the physical remains of the Airbus A330 that have been recovered, "we were able to see that the plane hit the surface of the water flat. Therefore everything was pushed upwards -- everything was pushed from the bottom to the top" of the plane, he said.

The initial findings BEA presented were based on a series of 24 "incoherent messages" that were sent out by the plane just before contact was lost, Bouillard said.

Among the messages are indications the plane's autopilot had failed, that the aircraft was no longer properly reporting wind function and the cockpit was no longer receiving proper information about the plane's direction or speed, officials said.

The failed autopilot controls would have left the pilot in control of the airplane as it flew through the stormy weather with failing systems, officials said.

Air France Flight 447, an Airbus 330, crashed on the night between May 31st and June 1st en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 people aboard were killed. Officials say that the investigation behind the causes of the crash is one of the most complicated in aviation history.