Solar Energy News  
AEROSPACE
French nuclear sub begins search for jet's black boxes

Canadian geese brought down flight 1549
Smithsonian Institution scientists say the birds that struck a plane in New York, forcing it into the Hudson River in January, were migratory Canadian geese. The researchers said they examined the feather remains from the Jan. 15 US Airways Flight 1549 bird strike and determined the geese were from a migratory, rather than resident, population. Scientists in the Feather Identification Laboratory at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History said they used molecular genetic techniques and feather samples from museum collections to determine that the birds involved were Canada geese (Branta canadensis) with individuals estimated to have weighed about 8 pounds. The finding, the researchers said, will help in the development of policies and techniques designed to reduce the risk of future collisions. The plane had just taken off from New York's LaGuardia Airport, when it collided with a flock of geese approximately 2,900 feet above the ground, extensively damaging both of the aircraft's engines. The pilot was able to conduct an emergency landing in the Hudson River and all 155 people on board survived. Investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board later sent feathers and tissue extracted from the plane's engines to the Smithsonian in Washington for analysis. The team's findings are detailed in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. Photo courtesy of AFP.
by Staff Writers
 Fernando De Noronha, Brazil (AFP) June 10, 2009
 A French nuclear submarine launched a high-tech undersea sweep Wednesday to track down the black boxes missing after an Air France flight plunged into the Atlantic.

The Emeraude, a nuclear hunter-killer sub, will use its sensitive sonar to probe the ocean depths off Brazil in a race to find the flight data recorders before their locator beacons run out of power.

If the boxes are not recovered within three weeks they might never be found, complicating the investigation into the loss of Air France Flight 447 from Rio to Paris, which crashed on June 1 with the loss of 228 people.

"The Emeraude has begun its search operations," said French military spokesman Captain Christophe Prazuck said in Paris.

The first search zone measured 36 kilometers by 36 (22 miles by 22), which the sub should cover in a day, Prazuck said.

"It will change zone each day and no time limit has been set," he said, adding that the Emeraude would be joined in the area by the Mistral, a naval command and control vessel equipped with a Panther helicopter.

Brazil has a large naval and air force contingent in the crash zone, which, along with a French navy frigate, has already recovered some plane debris and at least 41 bodies.

The first 16 of those bodies were due to arrive by plane later Wednesday in the Brazilian mainland city of Recife for identification using DNA samples from relatives.

The other 25 were to follow after being delivered by ship to the Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, 370 kilometers off-shore.

French officials acknowledge the hunt for the black boxes will not be easy and success is far from guaranteed.

The black boxes are thought to be in waters as deep as 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) and 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) from the Brazilian coast.

If the Emeraude does locate the signal, the French scientific research vessel Pourquoi Pas will launch a mini-submarine -- one which was used to survey the wreck of the Titanic -- to retrieve the recorders.

"The Emeraude will operate a bit like an airship hovering over a mountain chain and searching with binoculars," Captain Jerome Erulin, spokesman for the French navy, told AFP in Paris.

Preparations were also underway to equip two French tugboats with underwater pinger locators on loan from the US military that could pick up the black boxes' signals.

It is still not known what brought down the Air France jet.

No distress call was received from the pilots, but a series of 24 electronic warnings were sent automatically by the airliner's final four minutes as its flight systems shut down one by one.

The messages have focused suspicions on the plane's exterior airspeed sensors, known as pitot probes. There is speculation the tubes may have iced up during a storm at high altitude.

If the plane was flying too slow the airliner could have stalled, or if the Airbus was flying too fast it could have ripped the airframe apart, aviation experts say.

The French airline has stepped up a program to install a newer type of pitot tubes on its A330 and A340 aircraft after pilots' unions threatened to refuse to fly.

The European air safety agency said Tuesday that Airbus models were "safe to operate," but added that a bulletin had gone out to remind airlines of what to do "in the event of loss of, or unreliable, speed indication."

French police on Wednesday said meanwhile that an investigation into two passengers on flight AF 447 whose name corresponded with those of two suspected Islamist militants drew a blank.

The two passengers were "simple namesakes" and not the suspects in question, a senior officer told AFP, adding that this line of enquiry had been dismissed.

Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
 Aerospace News at SpaceMart.com


Memory Foam Mattress Review
SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
 Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


AEROSPACE
Airlines see turnaround in 2010 but more job losses feared
 Kuala Lumpur (AFP) June 9, 2009
 Airline executives Tuesday expressed hope of a turnaround next year after fresh estimates showed they may lose close to 20 billion dollars from 2008 to 2009 due to the global economic slowdown. With oil prices threatening to rise on expectations of a US-led economic turnaround, delegates to the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said some carriers may start ... read more






The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2009 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement