Air France Replacing Air Speed Sensors
By VOA News
09 June 2009
A pilots' union says Air France is replacing the speed sensors on its Airbus jets, after one of the planes crashed last week in the Atlantic Ocean.
Union officials say the airline has promised not to allow any A330 or A340 jets to fly unless at least two of three speed monitors are replaced with newer models.
There has been speculation that a problem with the sensors, known as Pitot tubes, may have led to the deadly crash of Air France Flight 447, which was headed to Paris from Rio de Janeiro when it disappeared from radar on May 31st.
Theories being investigated include the possibility that the sensors iced over during a thunderstorm and gave false readings to the cockpit. Aviation experts say the false data could have caused the pilots to fly too slow and stall, or too fast and lead the air frame to rip apart.
Search teams have recovered a large tail section that was sheared off of the plane. The searchers say they have recovered the remains of 24 of the 228 people who were onboard.
Members of the Brazilian Air Force carry a body rescued from Atlantic ocean by Brazilian Navy frigate Constituiçao, northeast coast of Brazil, 09 Jun 2009
Investigators have said the aircraft maker, Airbus, had recommended replacing part of the airspeed sensing system on its A330 aircraft like the one that crashed. Air France had not yet done the work on the doomed plane.
Separately, a U.S. Navy team headed to Brazil to assist in searching for the plane's flight data recorders. The U.S. team is delivering two high-tech listening devices that can detect emergency beacons to a depth of 6,100 meters.
The recorders, known as "black boxes," have voice recordings and data from the final minutes of Flight 447. They are believed to be sitting on the ocean floor at depths of at least 3,000 meters. The recorders emit signals for 30 days after an accident.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
By VOA News
09 June 2009
A pilots' union says Air France is replacing the speed sensors on its Airbus jets, after one of the planes crashed last week in the Atlantic Ocean.
Union officials say the airline has promised not to allow any A330 or A340 jets to fly unless at least two of three speed monitors are replaced with newer models.
There has been speculation that a problem with the sensors, known as Pitot tubes, may have led to the deadly crash of Air France Flight 447, which was headed to Paris from Rio de Janeiro when it disappeared from radar on May 31st.
Theories being investigated include the possibility that the sensors iced over during a thunderstorm and gave false readings to the cockpit. Aviation experts say the false data could have caused the pilots to fly too slow and stall, or too fast and lead the air frame to rip apart.
Search teams have recovered a large tail section that was sheared off of the plane. The searchers say they have recovered the remains of 24 of the 228 people who were onboard.
Members of the Brazilian Air Force carry a body rescued from Atlantic ocean by Brazilian Navy frigate Constituiçao, northeast coast of Brazil, 09 Jun 2009
Investigators have said the aircraft maker, Airbus, had recommended replacing part of the airspeed sensing system on its A330 aircraft like the one that crashed. Air France had not yet done the work on the doomed plane.
Separately, a U.S. Navy team headed to Brazil to assist in searching for the plane's flight data recorders. The U.S. team is delivering two high-tech listening devices that can detect emergency beacons to a depth of 6,100 meters.
The recorders, known as "black boxes," have voice recordings and data from the final minutes of Flight 447. They are believed to be sitting on the ocean floor at depths of at least 3,000 meters. The recorders emit signals for 30 days after an accident.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
