AVIATION/ AIR FRANCE FL447 SALVAGE MISSION ENDS

Salvage teams have finished retrieving bodies and wreckage from AIR FRANCE Flight 447 which crashed into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009. A spokesman for the victims' relatives said 104 bodies, all that were deemed recoverable, had been hauled up from a depth of 12800ft. The search team had prepared a commemorative plaque to leave with the sunken wreckage before departing. The remains will be taken to a mortuary in France for identification. Around 50 bodies were found floating on the surface in the immediate aftermath of the crash, which claimed the lives of all 228 passengers and crew onboard. However, most went down with the plane and were lost until salvage crews located the wreckage in April this year. Each body had to be pulled up from the seabed. The 1st 2 bodies to be retrieved were still strapped into their seats.  Forensic experts in Toulouse, France, will now try to identify the remains. The salvage team also retrieved the plane's FDR and CVR. Evidence gathered from it so far has shown that the Airbus A330, pictured top, fell for 3.5 minutes before hitting the ocean. The French air accident investigations bureau BEA found the crew had struggled with contradictory speed readings just before the plane crashed. 

AF FL447 TIMELINE:

10.29pm: Air France 447 to Paris takes off from Rio de Janeiro Galeao Airport.
1.35am: Flight crew makes scheduled call to Brazilian air-traffic control, advising of its location and progress. 2.06am: Cockpit warns Flight Attendants to expect turbulence in 2 minutes.
2.08am: Crew steers plane around stormy area.
2.10am: Autopilot disengages. “I have the controls,” says a Pilot, then points jet’s nose upwards. A stall warning sounds twice.
2.10am: Pilot calls for Captain to return from his rest break. A 3rd stall warning sounds. Pilot keeps pointing nose up and increases engine thrust.
2.11am: Captain returns. Jet falls at 3000m a minute.
2.12am: “I don’t have any more indications,” says a Pilot. Thrust reduced to idle.
2.13am: Pilot says plane has reached 3000m, a fall of more than 7600m in 5 minutes. Both Pilots try to control the aircraft.
2.20am: The time by which AF447 was supposed to reach the Brazil-Senegal airspace boundary passes with no communication from the plane. Controllers in 10 flight-information regions, including Dakar, Casablanca, Lisbon and Madrid, try to determine the aircraft’s position.
7.41am: Air France and Brest air-traffic control contact France’s air-accident investigation authority.
8.15am" Madrid issues an emergency alert. Then Brest launches a distress signal. Search and rescue begins.

Investigators with the BEA have been working on the theory that the Pitot Tubes malfunctioned because of ice at high altitude. The BEA is due to deliver its Prelminary Report on the causes of the crash next month.