AVIATION/ INITIAL AIR FRANCE FL447 DATA REQURIES NO OPERATOR ACTION

Airbus has issued an information telex to operators stating that no immediate action is required as a result of preliminary data recovered from AIR FRANCE Flight 447. While the telex, issued yesterday, is not designed to establish a conclusion over the cause of the June 1, 2009 crash of the Airbus A330, pictured above, into the Atlantic Ocean, it effectively points away from a catastrophic technical failure onboard the aircraft. Airbus declined to comment on the document. The French investigation agency Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses (BEA), which would have approved the release of the telex, has cautioned against speculation over the crash, stating that any conclusions not validated by its investigators are "null and void". But a source familiar with the inquiry states that the advisory telex to operators "does not see a need" for any specific action as a result of initial evidence from the inquiry. Such a telex is normally a reassurance to operators that there is no evidence of an occurrence which would require an urgent maintenance check or revision of operating procedures. It follows the download of information from the FDR and CVR from Flight 447, retrieved at the beginning of May after an intensive 2 year hunt for the A330's wreckage in the South Atlantic. The telex would not rule out the possibility of pitot tube icing, long suspected to have been an element of the accident sequence, but precautionary directives on this, and the appropriate Pilot response to unreliable airspeed information, have already been issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). (SK COMMENT: The release of this telex has raised rampant speculation on aviation sites across the world. One French newspaper went as far as to say the data points to Pilot Error, however the BEA has categorically denied the press report. As some analysts point out, the dozens of ACARS messages the aircraft sent before going down, all described a multitude of mechanical problems developing. Multiple reports suggest that the BEA may release more information later this week).