| Author | Message | | gchq | | Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:10 pm Post subject: Air France crash: autopsies suggest plane broke up in air |
| Air France crash: autopsies suggest plane broke up in air
The Telegraph
18 Jun 2009
Multiple fractures on the bodies of victims of the Air France disaster suggest the plane broke up in the air, post mortem results have revealed.
Members of the Brazilian Air Force carry the body of a victim of Air France
flight 447 Photo: REUTERS
In the latest sign that Flight 447 was no longer intact when it plunged into the Atlantic, medical examiners said the bodies had multiple fractures of legs, hips and arms.
Such injuries could mean the plane broke apart in air, forensic experts said. Bodies and debris would be severely fragmented if the jet crashed intact.
The theory that the plane broke up in the air is also supported by the location of victims' bodies found more than 50 miles apart.
However, experts have all but ruled out a mid-explosion as the bodies reportedly show no signs of burns.
Air crash investigators yesterday said there were "getting closer" to understanding what brought down the Airbus A330 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board.
But they urged relatives to have "a lot of patience".
Speaking in Paris, they announced that a 50th body has been found in the choppy ocean waters, where bad weather is hampering the search.
They said that 400 pieces of wreckage from "all zones" of Flight 447 had been recovered, and the picture of what went wrong was slowly becoming clearer.
"Considering all the work that has been done and all we have at our disposal, I think we may be getting a bit closer to our goal," said Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of France's air accident investigation bureau, the BEA.
However, he urged the public to show "a lot of patience" while the search continued in "unfavourable conditions".
Herve Morin, France's defence minister, promised on Tuesday that the hunt for more wreckage and bodies would continue while there was hope of finding the plane's black boxes.
Homing signals from the flight data and cockpit voice recorders are being sought by the Brazilian military, a French nuclear submarine and Dutch ships towing two hi-tech US Navy listening devices.
Their beacons will fade within two weeks.
Nelson Jobim, Brazil's defence minister, said the French would continue searching and helping to identify the bodies, but the entire identification process would take place in Brazil "to avoid double autopsies, which would be a horrible thing for the families".
The BEA yesterday said it regretted its medical experts had not being authorised to take part in post mortems with their Brazilian counterparts.
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