Call for new air safety standards
Source: Agencies |
December 18, 2009, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FRENCH aviation investigators said yesterday that new airline safety standards may be required after the crash of Air France Flight 447 cast doubt on the reliability of speed-measuring equipment in stormy conditions.
The Airbus A330 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil's coast en route from Rio to Paris on June 1. All 228 people aboard were killed.
In its second report on the crash, French accident investigation agency BEA said experts still have little idea about why the plane went down as the black box flight information recorders were not recovered.
Automatic messages sent by the plane's computers just before it crashed show the plane was receiving false speed readings from sensors known as Pitot tubes. Experts have said running into a violent storm at either too slow or too fast a speed at high altitudes could be dangerous.
The BEA said that safety standards used to certify plane equipment - particularly Pitot tubes - don't properly reflect high-altitude conditions. The report called for studies of cloud masses and icy conditions.
Investigators repeatedly have insisted that the crash was likely caused by a series of failures and not just the Pitot tubes.
The report says there were "powerful cumulonimbus clusters" on the route flown by Flight 447 and that many planes flying in the area altered their routes to avoid the cloud masses.
The Airbus A330 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil's coast en route from Rio to Paris on June 1. All 228 people aboard were killed.
In its second report on the crash, French accident investigation agency BEA said experts still have little idea about why the plane went down as the black box flight information recorders were not recovered.
Automatic messages sent by the plane's computers just before it crashed show the plane was receiving false speed readings from sensors known as Pitot tubes. Experts have said running into a violent storm at either too slow or too fast a speed at high altitudes could be dangerous.
The BEA said that safety standards used to certify plane equipment - particularly Pitot tubes - don't properly reflect high-altitude conditions. The report called for studies of cloud masses and icy conditions.
Investigators repeatedly have insisted that the crash was likely caused by a series of failures and not just the Pitot tubes.
The report says there were "powerful cumulonimbus clusters" on the route flown by Flight 447 and that many planes flying in the area altered their routes to avoid the cloud masses.
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