New Hope for Air France Black Boxes

Almost a year after an Air France crash that killed 228 people, there is renewed hope that the plane’s black boxes could be recovered.

While there are no longer teams searching the sea where the plane came down, a French laboratory had been working on the signals previously received from the boxes, which stopped emitting in July 2009.

Defense Ministry Spokesman Christian Baptiste says the analysis has meant technicians have identified the approximate area where the black boxes should be.

[General Christian Baptiste, Defense Ministry Spokesman]:           
„What’s new is that audio analysis of elements that had been recorded several months ago have allowed, possibly, to say that we have found the localization, the area, in which these black boxes have come down.“

Even after this development, finding the black boxes will not be easy.

Baptiste says they are still dealing with a large area that is difficult to search effectively.

[General Christian Baptiste, Defense Ministry Spokesman]:             
„We are still far from certain. These are black boxes that are no longer transmitting and the area that has been localized through this analysis is an area that corresponds to the surface of Paris, in which one would find an object the size of a shoebox, in an underwater terrain that is similar to the Andes.“

Air France flight AF 447 between Rio de Janeiro and Paris crashed into the sea on June 1st 2009, killing all on board.

Wreckage and several bodies were found in a search after the crash, but the exact causes of the accident remain unknown – unless the black boxes can be found.

Foto: NTDTV