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12/17/09

BBC News - Air France inquiry calls for 'black box' changes

An Air France 330 taking off


For the complete report from the BBC News click on this link

"Black box" flight recorders should be modified to emit signals for longer, experts investigating June's Air France disaster over the Atlantic have said. Their inquiry into why the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed has been hampered by the failure to find the jet's recorders. The reliability of speed sensors on the Airbus A330 has been questioned and BEA experts have suggested that new safety standards might be needed. "At this stage, despite the extensive analyses carried out by the BEA on the basis of the available information, it is still not possible to understand the causes and the circumstances of the accident," the BEA report said. Another recommendation was that passenger planes flying over the sea should be equipped with an extra beacon transmitting on a different frequency, which would increase the chances of finding the wreckage.

A string of automated messages just before the crash showed there were inconsistencies in data from the sensors, known as pitot tubes. BEA said safety tests on the equipment did not replicate high-altitude conditions and it called for more studies of cloud masses and icy conditions.

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