Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim
attends a press conference held in Brasilia, Brazil, June 3, 2009. Brazil
Tuesday confirmed the debris found earlier on the open Atlantic Ocean
belonged to Air France Flight 447, solidifying the crash of the jet that
went missing early Monday. The three-mile (five kilometers) path of
wreckage found in the Atlantic Ocean belonged to the Air France jet
carrying 228 people that was believed to have crashed into the sea,
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said on Tuesday.(Xinhua
Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian Air
Force announced on Wednesday that more debris from the Air France Flight 447 has
been found.
The items, a seven-meter-long object and 10 other
objects, some of them metallic, were spotted by the search planes at 3:40 am,
the Air Force stated. A 20-kilometer-long oil track was spotted as well.
The items were found in four different points, spread
over a five kilometers radius, 90 kilometers south of the place where the first
debris were spotted. According to the Air Force, the debris' position alone is
no indication that the Air France plane suffered some sort of explosion in the
air.
The plane which identified the debris, an Embraer
R-99 model, has not spotted any bodies, but according to the Air Force's
spokesman, Colonel Jorge Amaral, the authorities are still working with the
possibility of finding survivors of the accident.
Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim
attends a press conference held in Brasilia, Brazil, June 3, 2009. Brazil
Tuesday confirmed the debris found earlier on the open Atlantic Ocean
belonged to Air France Flight 447, solidifying the crash of the jet that
went missing early Monday. The three-mile (five kilometers) path of
wreckage found in the Atlantic Ocean belonged to the Air France jet
carrying 228 people that was believed to have crashed into the sea,
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said on Tuesday.(Xinhua
Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
A total of 11 aircraft are involved in the search
efforts, including a P-3 Orion model from the U.S. Air Force and a Falcon 50
model from the French Air Force. The remaining planes, including three Lockheed
C-130 Hercules models, all belong to the Brazilian Air Force.
The French government also sent submarines, in an
attempt to find the plane's Flight Data Recorder, which may help uncover the
causes of the crash. This may prove to be a difficult task, as the depth in the
area surpasses 4,000 meters; additionally, there is no guarantee that the
information in the Flight Data Recorder will explain the circumstances of the
accident.
On Wednesday morning, the first Brazilian Navy ship
reached the area in which the first debris was spotted. As soon as the Grajau
ship manages to find the items, it will start to collect the material for
analysis.
Two other Brazilian Navy ships, the Frigate
Constituicao and the Corvette Caboclo, are to reach the site on Thursday. A
total of five Navy ships are involved in the search, as well as three mercantile
ships which were in the area.
All the items collected will be taken first to the
Fernando de Noronha archipelago, located about 650 kilometers from the crash
site, and then to Pernambuco state's capital city Recife, where they will be
analyzed. Later on, the items may be taken to France, where the investigations
to determine the cause of the crash will take place.
The Air France Flight 447 took off from Rio on Sunday
Morning, disappearing hours later without distress call. The place carried 228
occupants, including eight children.
Photo released by Brazilian Air Force
shows a Brazilian Air Force jet searching for the possible survivors in
the air crash over the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil on June 3, 2009. The
Brazilian Air Force announced on Wednesday that more debris from the Air
France Flight 447 has been found. The plane which identified the debris,
an Embraer R-99 model, has not spotted any bodies, but according to the
Air Force's spokesman, Colonel Jorge Amaral, the authorities are still
working with the possibility of finding survivors of the accident. (Xinhua
Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
RIO
DE JANEIRO/PARIS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- More debris from the Air France Flight 447
has been found on Wednesday, but the whereabouts of its black box remained a
mystery.
A seven-meter-long object and 10 other objects, some of
them metallic, were spotted by the search planes at 3:40 a.m., said the
Brazilian Air Force. A 20-kilometer-long oil track was spotted as well. Full story
PARIS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- French Foreign
Minister Bernard Kouchner will visit Brazil to attend ceremonies in honor of
victims of the Air France Airbus A330 flight AF447, announced the French
officials on Wednesday.
At the request of the Brazilian president,
Kouchner will "travel to Brazil to participate in ceremonies commemorating the
victims to be held in Brazil in the coming days," the government spokesman Luc
Chatel said in his weekly report of the Council of Ministers. Full story
PARIS, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The French accident
investigation agency said on Wednesday it was not hopeful that the black box of
the missing Air France airliner would be found.
Speaking at the first news conference since the
disappearance of the Air France flight AF447 from Rio to Paris on Monday,
Paul-Louis Arslanian, the director of France's air safety investigation agency,
said he was "not optimistic" that the box would be found in the "deep sea and
mountainous area." Full story
BRASILIA, June 2 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian air force on
Tuesday announced that they have sent more planes and soldiers to Brazil's
Fernando de Noronha archipelago in the Atlantic to search for the missing Air
France airliner.
The Air France Flight 447, with 228 passengers on
board, left Rio de Janeiro for Paris on Sunday at 7 p.m. (2200 GMT). The plane
lost contact with the air control about three and half hours after its takeoff,
when it was flying over the Atlantic, around 300 km northeast off Brazilian
coastal city Natal. Full story
A Brazilian Air Force radar plane at
Fernando de Noronha airport preparing for the search of the Air France
flight 447 bound for Paris that plunged into the Atlantic just a few hours
after taking off on late May 31 from Rio de Janeiro.((Xinhua/AFP
Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
RIO
DE JANEIRO, June 2 (Xinhua) -- A pilot from Brazil's airline TAM may have
spotted a burning piece of wreckage of the Air France passenger plane that
disappeared early Monday morning.
The Brazilian Air Force confirmed late Monday that
the pilot saw "orange-colored spots" on the Atlantic Ocean, about 40 minutes
after the last contact between Air France Flight 447 and Brazil's air control
center.Full story
PARIS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Air France's chief executive
said on Monday that the missing Air France airliner Airbus A330-200 disappeared
in the middle of the waters between Brazilian and African coasts with a
circumference of scores of nautical miles. Full story
BRASILIA, June 1 (Xinhua)
-- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that he "shares
the pain of the relatives and friends of the victims" from the flight 447 of Air
France that disappeared on Sunday night when it was flying from Rio de Janeiro
to Paris.
The Air France airliner, an Airbus 330-200 bound for
Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, lost contact with the control center shortly
after its takeoff from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday at 7 p.m. (2200 GMT).Full story
BRUSSELS, June 1
(Xinhua) -- European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso expressed express
solidarity and sympathy over an accident of an Air France aircraft in a message
sent respectively on Monday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his
Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
"It is with emotion that I learned of the accident
that took place this Sunday with an Air France plane from Rio de Janeiro to
Paris, causing 228 victims and enormous suffering on both sides ofthe Atlantic,"
Barroso said on behalf of the European Commission. Full story
RIO
DE JANEIRO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government said on Monday that
three Air Force planes and three Navy ships are in route to take part on the
search effort for the Air France Flight 447, some 1,100 kilometers off the coast
of the Brazilian city of Natal in the country's northeastern region.
The French government is also helping, with a
military aircraft which took off from Senegal earlier on Monday. Full story
PARIS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Chances of finding any survivors
are "very slim" as an Air France airliner with 228 people on board vanished over
the Atlantic Ocean, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Monday. Full story
PARIS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Air France announced Monday that
victims aboard Flight 447 missing over the Atlantic on route from Rio de Janeiro
to Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport came from 32 countries. Full story
EIO DE JANEIRO, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Eight Chinese nationals
were onboard an Air France passenger plane missing over the Atlantic off the
Brazilian coast, the Chinese Embassy in Brazil said on Monday. Full story
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim
holds a diagram of the crash area during a news conference in Rio de
Janeiro June 2, 2009. Jobim said that wreckage spotted in the Atlantic
Ocean is "without a doubt" from the Air France jet that disappeared en
route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro with 228 people on board.
(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo
Gallery>>>
