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Air France 447
Downed jet's tail fin found, could point way to black boxes
Article published on the 2009-06-08 Latest update 2009-06-08 21:10 TU
Brazilian sailors retrieving Air France 447's tail section about 1200 km northeast of Recife, 8 June 2009
(Photo: Reuters)
Brazil's navy on Wednesday recovered, from the Atlantic Ocean, much of the tail fin of Air France flight 447, which crashed June 1. The plane's flight data recorders were mounted in the tail section. The find thus narrows the search for them.
Brazilian officials also announced that they had found 16 bodies and were transporting them ultimately to the city of Recife for identification. Earlier, the number they had given was 17, but they said this was a counting error.
The black box flight data recorders emit homing beacons, but these are expected to stop functioning in about three weeks.
Later this week, two US pinger locators are due to arrive in the area to try to pick up the signals.
The depth of this part of the ocean is as much as six kilometers. If signals are located, then a French deep-sea diving submarine used to help rediscover the Titanic is ready to try to recover the black boxes.
 Tail section,16 bodies recovered from crash site |
