France/Brazil

Submarine investigates possible Air France signal

Article published on the 2009-06-23 Latest update 2009-06-23 11:24 TU

The Caboclo is one of the Brazilian navy ships involved in the Air France flight 447 search mission
(Photo : AFP)

A miniature French submarine is searching for the black boxes of the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic two weeks ago. The submarine was launched on Monday after French navy vessels detected a “very weak” signal. However, investigators said they pick up similar signals virtually every day and that the plane's flight recorders had still to be located.

The signal was detected several hundred kilometres off the coast of Brazil, according to French daily newspaper Le Monde.

A Nautile mini-submarine, which can operate at a depth of six kilometres, has now been launched, says the daily, in the hope of locating the flight's black boxes. The devices' homing beacons will only operate until the end of the month.

Recovering the flight recorders would help investigators establish why Air France flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed on 1 June 2009.

Since the investigation began, fifty bodies have been recovered, as well as several pieces of debris from the plane. Eleven of the dead have been identified, ten of whom are Brazilian. The plane was carrying 228 people, including the crew.