Update 15:40 Various sources report that French air crash investigators have denied having “located” the flight recorders, as reported by Le Monde earlier today. The black boxes, or flight recorders, emit weak radio signals that will last for 30 days and can be detected up to 2 km away. Yesterday, the French navy launched an unmanned submarine to investigate an electronic signal, thought to have come from the black boxes. This turned out to be a false alarm, Reuters reports.
The black boxes, or cockpit voice and data recorders, from Air France’s AF447 flight that was lost over the Atlantic 1 June reportedly have been found. A French mini-submarine, Nautile de l’Ifremer located them 22 June, thanks to very weak signals they emit from the bottom of the ocean. The French navy reports that the ocean floor is extremely rugged and there is no guarantee of being able to recover the recorders. Investigators trying to unravel the mystery of the crash, with 228 people on board the plane, hope the recorders will provide essential information on the doomed aircraft’s final moments. Le Monde (Fre)
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News story, GenevaLunch, 23 June 2009.
Filed under: Politics, World news
Tags: AF 447, Air France, black box, Brazil, data recorder, flight recorder, France, Nautile de l'Ifremer
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Correction…the “pingers” on the recorders do not emit radio signals…that’s nearly impossible underwater. They emit an acoustic “ping” which can be picked up by sonar type hydrophone systems.
The “Emeraude” is an hunter killer sub, and has sophisticated passive sonar that can hear a whale fart at 20 miles!
Paul..
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Thanks, I’ll try to build that in. So the “ping” is really more like a bicycle bell underwater? What if the crash is on land? — same system or would it be a radio signal then?
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Yes…it’s more like a bike bell.
The land crash is usually quite easy to find…fireballs and smoke columns and all.
The pinger is usually activated by being immersed in water.
There is a radio device called an ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter) that is impact triggered…or from the cockpit if the pilot knows he is going to crash. It can also be unstrapped from the wreckage and turned on by a survivor. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Position-Indicating_Radio_Beacon
The full skinny on the pingers will be in ARINC spec 747-2 (data recorder) or 757 (Voice recorder.) It will cost a few bucks…see http://www.arinc.com
FYI…Radio waves probagate very badly underwater.
Paul..
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:29 pm
For a picture of a pinger, go to http://www.tailstrike.com/
The little yellowish cylindrical object on the front of the orange recorder is the pinger.
Paul..
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Thanks!
cheers, Sean
June 25th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Sean..
You might want to cast an eye over the interim BEA report at http://www.bea-fr.org/anglaise/actualite/af447/sea.search.ops.pdf
Paul.
June 25th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Paul, that’s a really interesting report. Thanks. We’re coming up to d-day, so I will try to do something timely on this. — Sean
June 13th, 2010 at 6:15 am
Situation update:
The BEA has carried out and abandoned the third stage search of the ocean floor. About 200 sq miles of the search target area remain un-examined.
At the time of the crash, the nuke submarine “Emeraude” carried out a search using towed array sonar equipment, and came up blank. However, recordings were made, and subsequent computer analysis of the data revealed what was thought to be pinger sounds, and a location was determined.
The two search ships (Seabed-Worker and Anne-Candies) were diverted to examine the spot…nothing was found. This cost a number of days, and the ROV’s in use had to be released to go to new contractual work elsewhere, without completing the search.
The BEA is under intense pressure to complete the search. Nothing tells me that the area defined as the search area is big enough. I see some comment that the aircraft may have turned back in the last minutes, and that would change everything.
A good site for info is le Figaro… http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/
Enter “AF447″ in the search box.
Paul..
February 5th, 2011 at 11:23 pm
ARE THE TWO BLACK BOXES FOR AF 447 EVER GOING TO BE FOUND OR WILL AIR FRANCE JUST SHRUG THEIR SHOULDERS AS USUAL AND SAY IT IS TO EXPENSIVE.
IT SEEMS THAT THE AIRLINES IN GENERAL DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR PASSENGERS, AFTER ALL AIR FRANCE COULD HAVE GROUNDED ALL THE AIRCRAFT CONCERNED AND STOPPED AF 447 FROM CRASHING.