About Science-Nature – Air France jet ‘broke on impact’

About Science-Nature –

Search teams recovered 51 bodies from the wreckage of the plane

French investigators trying to find out why an Air France plane crashed in the Atlantic say they believe it broke up on contact with water, not in the air.

They said they reached that conclusion after examining the plane’s wreckage.

All 228 people aboard the plane were killed when it plunged into the ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on 1 June.

Teams looking for the plane’s flight data recorders will continue operations for another 10 days.

Alain Bouillard, of the BEA accident investigation agency, said the plane probably hit the water "in the direction of flight and with a strong vertical acceleration".

He said that the plane’s speed sensors had been "a factor but not the cause" of the crash.

"We are still some distance away from establishing the causes of the accident," he said.

There has been speculation that the old-style speed sensors may have given the plane’s pilots faulty information.

In the wake of the crash, Air France accelerated an existing programme to replace speed monitors on its Airbus planes.

Mr Bouillard also said the search for the Airbus A330′s data recorders would be extended to 10 July.

Search teams have recovered 51 bodies from the ocean but said last month that finding any more remains was "impossible".