Planes, ships converge on Air France crash area
Pastor Dale Morgan
Planes, ships converge on Air France crash area*
FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil (AFP) - - French and Brazilian planes and
ships were Wednesday converging on an area in the Atlantic where debris
from an Air France jet was spotted, but hopes were low of finding the
black boxes that could explain the tragedy.
Several Brazilian military aircraft as well as a French Falcon 50 and a
US P-3 Orion were overflying the zone 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off
Brazil's northeast coast, Brazil's air force said.
The first of five Brazilian Navy vessels was due to arrive in the zone
later Wednesday to begin the process of recovering debris -- and any
bodies that might be found.
None have been located so far, and hopes were virtually nil of finding
survivors.
One Brazilian aircraft with special radar and sensors discovered a new
patch of debris early Wednesday including a metallic object seven meters
(23 feet) in diameter and a fuel slick 20 kilometers long, air force
spokesman Colonel Jorge Amaral told reporters.
The objects were found 90 kilometers south of other patches of debris --
including an airline seat, a life-vest and cables -- spotted the day before.
Three civilian cargo ships that had been rerouted to the area on Tuesday
were acting as signposts, lacking the capability to localize and recover
the debris.
Brazil's government has declared three days of national mourning for
those on board Air France flight AF 447, which was carrying 228 people
when it came down on Monday, four hours into its 11-hour flight from Rio
de Janeiro to Paris.
In the French capital, services were held in their memory, including one
in Notre Dame cathedral attended by President Nicolas Sarkozy and French
passengers' families in which a condolence message from Benedict XVI was
read out.
The reason for the accident remained a mystery.
The Air France pilots issued no distress call, but the plane sent
automated messages over three minutes suggesting it had been badly
damaged or was breaking up.
France is leading the inquiry into the cause of the disaster, but it
looked far from certain that the plane's black boxes could be recovered
from the rugged bottom of the Atlantic, in waters as deep as 6,000 meters.
The director of the French air investigation agency, Paul Louis
Arslanian, said he was "not totally optimistic" the boxes would be
recovered from the "deep and mountainous" place into which they are
thought to have sunk.
He added that even if they were found there was no guarantee the speed
and altitude data and cockpit recordings would be enough to solve the
puzzle.
Two officials with the French agency were already in Brazil handling the
early stages on the probe.
Among other ships heading to the debris zone is a French research vessel
carrying two mini-submarines, the best hope of tracking down the boxes,
which ought to emit a location signal.
But Pierre Cochonat, of the French marine research institute Ifremer,
warned that unless the search area could be narrowed down, "it's
equivalent to looking for a needle in a haystack."
If final confirmation comes that all those on board the Air France plane
perished, it would be the worst disaster for the French airline in its
70-year history.
It would also be the worst civil aviation accident since 2001, when an
American Airlines jet crashed in New York killing all 260 people on board.
The 216 passengers on Air France flight AF 447 included 126 men, 82
women, seven children and a baby.
The crew comprised 11 French nationals and one Brazilian.