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| 'Ocean of Debris' Found at Air France 447 Crash Site |
| 2009-06-09 |
| An "ocean of debris" now surrounds divers recovering wreckage and bodies from Air France flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean, and searchers today recovered the stabilizer from the plane's tail, according to the Brazilian Navy. It's still unclear if the jet broke up in the air, or on impact. Former crash investigator Gregory Feith says they may be able to tell from the tail. "If it's on the backside or the furthest up the debris chain, then there's a high probability that could have been one of the first components that came off the airplane," said Feith. Investigators are looking into whether faulty speed sensors played a role. Airbus had recommended changing the sensors because of reliability issues, and Air France had noticed sensors icing up on some flights. Faulty speed readings can cause the jet to fly dangerously slow or fast. Much of the focus remains on those speed sensors because Air France said it was in the process of replacing them after seeing them freeze up and malfunction on other flights. The sensors had not yet been changed on flight 447. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 Prediction: Iced over sensors caused erroneous speed information to be sent to the flight computer causing the plane to think it was going slower than it was. Combined with severe turbulence, the pilot(s) were permitted by the flight control computer to input excessive rudder response shearing off the rudder and causing a loss of control that brought the aircraft down. Just my best guess based on the known facts to date. |
| Posted by: Flater White1380 2009-06-09 10:42 |