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Esto alimentaría la hipótesis de que el Airbus 330 se desintegró en el aire, versión calificada de "irresponsable" por el gigante aeronáutico europeo.- Rescatados hasta el momento 44 cuerpos
AGENCIAS - París / Río de Janeiro - 12/06/2009
Los cadáveres de 16 de los pasajeros del Airbus 330-200 que cayó al océano Atlántico el pasado 1 de junio con 228 personas a bordo no presentan quemaduras, un dato que descartaría la posibilidad de que el avión de Air France hubiese explotado, según ha informado el equipo forense brasileño encargado de hacer las autopsias.
* Un submarino nuclear busca la 'caja negra' del vuelo AF447
* La teoría de que el Airbus explotó en vuelo gana peso
* La pasajera que perdió el vuelo 447 muere en un accidente de tráfico
Un Airbus A330-200 de la compañía Air France con 228 personas a bordo, desapareció el lunes de madrugada mientras sobrevolaba el océano Atlántico. - Mariano Zafra, Rodrigo Silva, Antonio Alonso, Guadalupe Cruz
Brasil rescata otros tres cadáveres
Además, la mayoría de los cadáveres estaban desnudos debido a que la fuerza del viento habría arrancado su ropa. Según la cadena Globonews TV y el periódico Estado de Sao Paulo', estas revelaciones refuerzan la hipótesis de que el avión se pudo desintegrar en el aire antes de caer al mar, y que entra en contradicción con lo que dice la compañía aeronáutica europea Airbus.
Fabrice Brégier, director general de Airbus, ha asegurado que sus aviones son "seguros", tras las dudas surgidas sobre la posible implicación de los sensores de velocidad en el accidente del pasado día 1. Los restos encontrados en el Atlántico y los mensajes automáticos enviados a la sede de Air France han abierto nuevas vías de investigación.
El número dos del constructor europeo ha considerado "irresponsables" los artículos publicados en Francia, por el diario Le Figaro, que apuntan a fallos en los sensores de velocidad como causa del siniestro. "En este estado de la investigación no hay ninguna relación entre el accidente del avión de Air France y cualquier endeblez de navegación del aparato", ha asegurado.
Las palabras del director general de Airbus, compañía encargada de construir el avión siniestrado, llegan después de que la teoría de que el aparato se desintegró en medio de la tormenta va ganando terreno, a raíz de los indicios encontrados por los equipos de expertos. "Nuestros aviones son seguros. Lo afirmamos, lo afirma la Agencia Europea de Seguridad Aérea (EASA), lo afirman nuestros clientes", ha reiterado Brégier en una entrevista que hoy publica el diario La Dépêche du Midi.
Esa reacción, la primera de un directivo de Airbus, va en consonancia con la mostrada por la Oficina de Investigaciones y Análisis (BEA), responsable de las pesquisas, y por Air France, propietaria del avión. Mientras que el BEA reiteró que "no hay ninguna relación establecida entre los sensores y las causas del accidente", el director general de Air France, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, dijo no estar "convencido" de que el fallo en estos provocaran la catástrofe.
Brégier ha reconocido que el avión registró "incoherencias en la velocidad medida" pero ha señalado que "ahora queda por definir el motivo". En el caso de que la investigación demuestre la implicación de los dispositivos de velocidad, el director general ha afirmado que tomarán "las medidas necesarias".
Rescate de más cuerpos
Pese a las malas condiciones meteorológicas que reinan en la zona de búsquedas, Brasil logró rescatar este jueves otros tres cuerpos de las personas, con lo que llega a 44 el total de cadáveres recuperados. El teniente de brigada de la Fuerza Aérea Ramon Cardoso indicó que los tres cadáveres que se recuperaron ayer ya están a bordo de la fragata Constitución para transportarlos al archipiélago de Fernando de Noronha, adonde llegarán mañana, previsiblemente. Cardoso explicó que el hecho de que los cadáveres y los restos del avión se encuentren tan lejos de la costa brasileña dificulta las operaciones, para cuya conclusión no se ha planteado una fecha límite.
Las autoridades brasileñas han advertido de que la posibilidad de rescatar los cuerpos de las 228 personas que viajaban en el vuelo es "muy remota". Un portavoz militar ha asegurado que "se ha informado a los familiares de las víctimas que no todos van a recibir los cuerpos de las personas que estaban a bordo del avión".
Los primeros 16 cadáveres rescatados se encuentran en la ciudad brasileña de Recife, donde ha comenzado su identificación, que está a cargo de peritos brasileños que recogieron muestras genéticas de los familiares. La Marina y la Fuerza Aérea brasileñas tienen planes de continuar las búsquedas hasta el próximo día 19, aunque las operaciones podrían prolongarse en función de lo que pueda ser localizado.
RECIFE, Brazil – Airlines moved quickly Tuesday to replace speed monitors like those suspected of feeding false information to the computers on Air France Flight 447 and possibly causing the plane to break up over the Atlantic Ocean.
Seventeen more bodies were pulled from the sea Tuesday, bringing the number recovered to 41. Another 187 have yet to be found. The first remains were brought to land by helicopter and will be flown to this coastal city Wednesday for identification.
Federal police began visiting families in Rio de Janeiro to collect genetic material — hair, blood, a cheek swab — to help identify the corpses.
Figuring out where the victims were seated and studying their injuries might help explain what brought down Flight 447 as it flew into thunderstorms on May 31, according to Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board.
With the plane's data recorders still missing, investigators have been focusing on the possibility that external speed monitors — called Pitot tubes — iced over and gave false readings to the plane's computers in a thunderstorm.
A key part of the investigation relies on a burst of 24 automatic messages the plane sent during the last minutes of the flight. The signals showed the plane's autopilot was not on, officials said, but it was not clear if the autopilot had been switched off by the pilots or had stopped working due to conflicting airspeed readings.
The L-shaped metal Pitot tubes jut from the wing or fuselage of a plane, and are usually heated to prevent icing. The pressure of air entering the tubes lets internal sensors measure the speed and angle of flight. A malfunctioning tube could mislead computers controlling the plane to dangerously accelerate or decelerate.
Air France said it began replacing the tubes on its A330 and A340 jets in May after pilots reported several incidents of icing leading to a loss of airspeed data, and that it had already replaced the Pitots in smaller A320 jets after similar problems were reported.
"What we know is that other planes that have experienced incorrect airspeed indications have had the same Pitots. And airplanes with the new Pitot tubes have never had such problems," said Air France pilot Eric Derivry, a spokesman for the SNPL pilots union.
While no cause has been established for the disaster, Derivry said the Pitot failures create "a web of presumptions, but only presumptions," that they could be a contributing factor.
The monitors had not yet been replaced on the A330 that was destroyed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
On Tuesday, the airline assured its pilots that none of its A330s or A340s would fly without at least two of the new instruments, and that all Air France A330s and A340s will have all three Pitots replaced by July. Brazil's air force said it is replacing them for the president's jet.
But some pilots said the planes should remain flyable even if Pitot tubes ice over in thunderstorms. And the European Aviation Safety Agency issued a precautionary safety bulletin Tuesday reminding operators about existing procedures to safely fly the aircraft even when air speed indicators malfunction.
"We are aware of issues with this in the past, but at no time were they classified as safety-critical," said Daniel Hoeltgen, the agency's spokesman.
About 70 airlines operate some 600 A330 planes similar to the doomed Air France jet, and two companies manufacture the Pitot monitors for them: France's Thales Group and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Goodrich Corp.
Thales made the Pitot tubes on the plane that crashed, company spokeswoman Caroline Philips confirmed. She did not say how many other planes use the devices.
Some major airlines — including US carriers United Airlines, Delta Air Lines Inc., Delta's Northwest Airlines subsidiary and US Airways — said they are upgrading the devices on their Airbus planes, according to the manufacturer's recommendation, and warning pilots in the meantime.
"Until these installations are complete, we are communicating with our flight crews to reiterate the correct procedures to be used in the event of unreliable airspeed indications," Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton said.
Some other major airlines said their Airbus jets use Pitots made by Goodrich and have had no problems related to icing or loss of data.
Airline industry officials also rallied to defend Airbus. At an industry conference in Kuala Lumpur, Emirates Airlines President Tim Clark said the Dubai-based company's 29 A330-200 planes have been flying since 1998 "and there is absolutely no reason why there should be any question over this plane."
The investigation was also examining the plane's vertical stabilizer from the tail section, which was found floating in the ocean. Damage that can be seen in images appear to reflect a lateral fracture, said William Waldock, who teaches air crash investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona.
"That would reinforce the idea that the plane broke up in flight," Waldock said. "If it hits intact, everything shatters in tiny pieces."
Goelz said the faulty airspeed readings and the fact that the vertical stabilizer was sheared from the jet could be related.
The Airbus A330-200 has a "rudder limiter" which restricts the movement of the rudder at high speeds. If it were to move too far while traveling too fast, it could shear off and take the vertical stabilizer with it.
"If you had a wrong speed being fed to the computer by the Pitot tube, it might allow the rudder to over-travel," Goelz said.
And could the loss of a rudder or stabilizer bring down a jet?
"Absolutely," Goelz said. "You need a rudder. And you need the (rudder) limiter on there to make sure the rudder doesn't get torn off or cause havoc with the plane's aerodynamics."
France, Brazil and the Pentagon have said there are no signs that terrorism was involved in the crash.
Brazil's military is handling the search for passengers and wreckage, leaving the accident investigation to the French, who have not responded to questions about where the debris would be stored and examined. The cause of some other airline disasters — TWA Flight 800 off New York for one — have been discovered by meticulously laying out recovered wreckage in a warehouse.
___
Marco Sibaja reported from Recife and Greg Keller from Paris. Associated Press writers contributing to this report included Federico Escher in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil; Alan Clendenning in Sao Paulo; Slobodan Lekic in Brussels; Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur; Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Harry Weber in Atlanta and Cecile Brisson in Paris.
