Air France crash
May 6, 2010
Researchers have found the area in the mid-Atlantic where the flight recorders from the Air France jet which crashed nearly a year ago are located.
An unnamed spokeswoman from BEA, France's air accident investigation authority, said Thursday that researchers had narrowed the search down to a zone of five square kilometers (nearly two square miles), based on new analysis of sonar data retrieved during initial search efforts last year.
The French navy has set up a new search perimeter, though French government spokesman Luc Chatel warned that it was still not clear whether the black boxes could ever be recovered.
"It's like trying to find a shoebox in an area the size of Paris, at a depth of 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) and in a terrain as rugged as the Alps," navy spokesman Hugues du Plessis d'Argentre told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Without the flight recorders, investigators have been unable to determine the cause of the crash.
Air France Flight 447 fell into the Atlantic en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris during a storm last June, killing its 228 passengers and crew members. The crash was the worst in Air France's 75-year-history.
cmk/AFP/AP/Reuters
Editor: Chuck Penfold