Air Crash in Brazil---No Survival(09-6-3)
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Debris located early Tuesday in the Atlantic Ocean off the northeast coast of Brazil is wreckage from the Air France jet that disappeared Monday, Brazil's Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said.
A French search and rescue crew scans the Atlantic for wreckage Tuesday.
A French search and rescue crew scans the Atlantic for wreckage Tuesday.No survivors have been found, he said.
Jobim made the announcement after meeting with relatives and friends of Brazilians who were among the 228 people aboard Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France.
The plane carried 216 passengers -- 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby -- and 12 crew members, Air France said.
The majority of the people on the flight came from Brazil, France and Germany. Other victims were from 29 other countries, including three from the United States. Of the crew, 11 were French, and nine from China.
A team of approximately 20 Air France staff members, including two doctors and a nurse, arrived Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro to assist families of the victims, the airline said.
An inter-religious ceremony is to be held Wednesday afternoon inside Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral for family and friends of the victims. Though it will be closed to news media, a sound recording of the ceremony will be broadcast into the square outside.
Also on the flight were two executives of the French tire company Michelin: Michelin Latin America President Luiz Roberto Anastacio and Antonio Gueiro, director of informatics. Read more about victims on Air France Flight 447
The jet was 4 years old and had last undergone routine maintenance April 16.
The Air France plane has built-in homing devices, said Greg Feith, a former investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
Homing devices such as "pingers," which are underwater locator beacons attached to flight data and cockpit voice recorders, can transmit signals from as deep as 14,000 feet, about the maximum depth of the waters in the area.
The average depth of the Atlantic Ocean is about 12,000 feet: more than 2 miles.
"They're water-activated, so if they're sitting at the bottom of the ocean, of course, then the military assets will have to go in there with listening devices and try and home in on those particular signals," Feith said.
Shortly before it disappeared, the plane's automatic system initiated a four-minute exchange of messages to the company's maintenance computers, indicating that "several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down," Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said Monday.
The jet, which was flying at 35,000 feet and at 521 mph, also sent a warning that it had lost pressure, the Brazilian air force said.
There was no contact with the crew during or after the time that the automatic messages were sent, Gourgeon said.
"It was probable that it was a little bit after those messages that the impact of the plane took place in the Atlantic," he addedwith commercial ships.
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A French search and rescue crew scans the Atlantic for wreckage Tuesday.
A French search and rescue crew scans the Atlantic for wreckage Tuesday.No survivors have been found, he said.
Jobim made the announcement after meeting with relatives and friends of Brazilians who were among the 228 people aboard Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France.
The plane carried 216 passengers -- 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby -- and 12 crew members, Air France said.
The majority of the people on the flight came from Brazil, France and Germany. Other victims were from 29 other countries, including three from the United States. Of the crew, 11 were French, and nine from China.
A team of approximately 20 Air France staff members, including two doctors and a nurse, arrived Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro to assist families of the victims, the airline said.
An inter-religious ceremony is to be held Wednesday afternoon inside Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral for family and friends of the victims. Though it will be closed to news media, a sound recording of the ceremony will be broadcast into the square outside.
Also on the flight were two executives of the French tire company Michelin: Michelin Latin America President Luiz Roberto Anastacio and Antonio Gueiro, director of informatics. Read more about victims on Air France Flight 447
The jet was 4 years old and had last undergone routine maintenance April 16.
The Air France plane has built-in homing devices, said Greg Feith, a former investigator with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
Homing devices such as "pingers," which are underwater locator beacons attached to flight data and cockpit voice recorders, can transmit signals from as deep as 14,000 feet, about the maximum depth of the waters in the area.
The average depth of the Atlantic Ocean is about 12,000 feet: more than 2 miles.
"They're water-activated, so if they're sitting at the bottom of the ocean, of course, then the military assets will have to go in there with listening devices and try and home in on those particular signals," Feith said.
Shortly before it disappeared, the plane's automatic system initiated a four-minute exchange of messages to the company's maintenance computers, indicating that "several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down," Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said Monday.
The jet, which was flying at 35,000 feet and at 521 mph, also sent a warning that it had lost pressure, the Brazilian air force said.
There was no contact with the crew during or after the time that the automatic messages were sent, Gourgeon said.
"It was probable that it was a little bit after those messages that the impact of the plane took place in the Atlantic," he addedwith commercial ships.
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Thanks for the edition of Liren Military Boots Webmaster