Parts of the wreckage of Air France Flight 447, which crashed off the northeastern coast of Brazil on June 1, 2009, while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, have been located and identified. The remnants of the Airbus A330 that crashed were discovered during a joint Airbus- and Air France-funded sea search.
Upon discovery of the wreckage, Air France KLM CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon released the following statement:
“Air France has been informed by the BEA, the French Air Accident Investigation Bureau, that elements of the Airbus A330 that crash-landed into the sea en route between Rio and Paris-Charles de Gaulle on 1 June 2009 have been located.
“This discovery, coming only days after the Air France and Airbus funded fourth sea search was launched, is good news indeed since it gives hope that information on the causes of the accident, so far unresolved, will be found. Answers will perhaps therefore be found to the questions that, since June 1, 2009, families of the victims, our airline and the aviation community worldwide have asked as to how this tragic accident occurred.
“Speaking on behalf of the airline, I would like to thank not only the French authorities who employed hitherto unheard of means to pursue searches but also the crew of the Alucia and all the teams who are going to take part in, as we all hope, the retrieval of the flight recorders.”
The cause of the deadly crash, which took place nearly two years ago, largely remains a mystery to investigators and airline officials who are hopeful that this latest development will yield the plane’s black boxes containing vital flight recordings and information.
The current search for information and clues is being funded by both Air France and Airbus at a cost of $12.5 million. Thus far, both entities have spent more than $28 million to search for clues related to the crash.
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