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Wednesday, Jun 03, 2009
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Brazilian Army discovers plane debris in Atlantic

Vaiju Naravane

In the region where Air France flight 447 emitted its last desperate signals, but mystery of what happened to aircraft remains

— PHOTO: AFP

A picture released by the French defence communication and audiovisual production agency on Tuesday shows a French soldier checking with binoculars the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Verde from a French reconnaissance Breguet Atlantic II.

Paris: The Brazilian Army on Tuesday discovered “small debris” from a plane in the Atlantic Ocean about 650 km. northeast of the Fernando de Noronha island, in the region where Air France flight 447 emitted its last desperate signals.

However, officials are unable to confirm whether the debris comes from the aircraft, which was plying the Rio-Paris route and which disappeared without a trace on early Monday morning.

Colonel Jorge Amaral, spokesperson of the Brazilian Army, told journalists that a passenger seat featured among the debris discovered.

Mystery remains

The mystery of what exactly happened to Air France flight 447, from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris, remains intact. The plane sent out a series of automatic failure messages signifying that all electrical circuits on board had failed before losing radio contact as it was flying over a storm-prone region of the Atlantic Ocean.

Colonel Amaral also revealed that a pilot from the Brazilian airline TAM, who was flying the same route as the ill-fated plane, reported seeing “several orange points in the ocean. On landing, the pilot learnt of the disappearance of the Air France flight and realised he might have seen the plane in flames as it ditched water.”

“Absolute priority”

In Paris, French Transport Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said planes scouting for the remains of the plane had so far failed to detect “luminous elements on the surface of the water.” The Minister said that recovering the black boxes “is an absolute priority.”

This might prove extremely difficult since the ocean floor area where the plane is believed to have gone down lies at a depth of between 3000 and 6000 metres.

Experts from the French Bureau of Accident Investigations (BEA), considered among the best in the world have been pressed into service.

“The experts do not believe it was a simple case of lightning striking the plane, which in itself does not pose a major threat since the plane has been designed to withstand such shocks. The suddenness of the accident leads them to believe that there was a succession of extraordinary events which could explain the crash,” the Minister said.

Although authorities have declared that in all probability the plane disappeared as a result of an accident, no hypothesis has been excluded and the anti-terrorism cells have begun carefully combing the passenger list for any possibility of a terrorist act.

U.S. help sought

Naval ships from several countries are helping with the search operation. France formally asked the U.S. for help using its powerful spy satellites.

More support

Defence Minister Herve Morin said on Tuesday that the search for the debris “will go on for as long as it takes. We have deployed several aircraft and naval ships and more air and sea support will be sent if necessary.”

Meanwhile, French radio and TV stations have been asked by the French authorities to respect the grief of those who have lost loved ones. The coverage by several stations was judged “aggressive and intrusive” by relatives.

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