The French BEA announced today that a 4th search will be conducted for the wreckage and cockpit recorders from AIR FRANCE Flight 447. The search for the A330, pictured top, will begin on March 15, 2011 and continue until July 2011. The search will be conducted in 3 phases of 36 days each. A total of 3900sq miles is to be searched using Remus Submarines. Should the wreckage or black boxes be located during this phase 4 search, the BEA would immediately trigger a phase 5 search for recovery. Phase 4 is being funded by the industry, such as Air France and Airbus, while phase 5 would be funded by the French Government. Air France Flight 447 was on International A330 Service from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, when it went down over the Atlantic in heavy storms on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 passengers and crew onboard. The last known postition of Flight 447 is seen in 2nd photo above. Only a small portion of the wreckage, as detailed in 3rd photo above, was located, along with about 50 victims. Although the A330 sent multiple ACARS messages, which detailed a cascading series of things going wrong, the wreckage and black boxes are essential for investigators to determine what did go wrong and why. Although weather certainly played a part, investigators believe the Pitot Tubes (speed sensors) may have malfunctioned. The BEA has previously said: "Observations of the tail fin and on the parts found from the passenger (galley, toilet door, crew rest module) showed that the airplane had likely struck the surface of the water in a straight line, with a high rate vertical acceleration".
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