Update on Air France Crash
According to French investigators at a press conference today, the Air France Airbus A330 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1 hit the water intact, as opposed to having broken apart in flight, as some other reports speculated.
Air France Flight 447 was carrying 223 people at the time of the accident. There were no survivors. According to the French investigators, an examination of the debris led them to the conclusion that the plane hit the water on its belly, facing the intended direction of flight.
Alain Bouillard, lead of the French investigation, said “visual examination of the debris shows that the plane hit with the bottom of its fuselage with very strong vertical acceleration.” Investigators went on to further say that the vertical section of the tail, initially located a significant distance from the rest of the wreckage, was attached to the plane at impact.
The question of why the plane went down is still an issue. Investigators continue to look for the black boxes which contain valuable data that could help determine what went wrong. But time to find them is reportedly running out. The black boxes are equipped with devices that emit an audible sound called “pingers” to assist in their recovery. Yet, the batteries that power the pingers are estimated to cease functioning on July 10.