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Brazil Ends Search for Crash Victims

By BRADLEY BROOKS
,
AP
posted: 17 HOURS 16 MINUTES AGO
comments: 41
filed under: World News
Text SizeAAA
SAO PAULO (June 27) - Brazil has ended the search for more bodies from the Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean last month, calling the task "impossible," but the search for the jet's flight recorders will go on.
Brazilian and French searchers have recovered large chunks of debris and 51 bodies from Air France Flight 447, which disappeared with 228 people on board late May 31.
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Brazil's air force and navy on Friday ended their search for more bodies or debris.
"The reason for this is the impossibility of finding survivors or bodies, which has always been the main focus of our search efforts," Brazilian Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz said at news conference.
But Munhoz said the search for the black boxes would continue "coordinated by France."
Experts say the black boxes may be key to deciding what brought the airliner down. And signals from the voice and data recorders begin to fade after about 30 days.
"We'll have a better idea July 1 on how much longer we'll go," said U.S. Air Force Col. Willie Berges, the Brazil-based commander of the American military forces supporting the search.
Berges said searchers were likely to keep going 12 to 15 days past the 30-day mark of the crash.
A French nuclear submarine and two French-contracted ships towing U.S. Navy listening devices are trolling a search area with a radius of 50 miles (80 kilometers) off Brazil's northeastern coast where it is believed the plane crashed.
The black boxes send out an electronic tapping sound that can be heard up to 1.25 miles away.
With the recorders still missing, accident investigators have focused on automated messages sent by the plane minutes before it lost contact.
One indicates the plane was receiving incorrect speed information from external instruments, which could destabilize the plane's control systems. Experts have suggested those external instruments might have iced over.
Air France has now replaced the monitors, called Pitot tubes, on all its Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft.
On Thursday, U.S. safety officials said they were investigating two incidents in which airspeed and altitude indications in the cockpits of A330 planes may have malfunctioned. The aircraft are the same type as the Air France plane that crashed.
In both cases the planes landed safely, and no one was injured, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement.
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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-06-27 06:35:58
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Gbuick87gnx

06:29 AMJun 28 2009

Trekkin, you're so educated, you're STOOPID.

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Irocker350

02:54 AMJun 28 2009

whatever happened to flying around a t-storm that is known to be there that can be "seen" very acurately by radar and also in flight planning to avoid it by either requesting additional fuel to go around it and if that is not practical due to the size of the storm, delaying the flight, yeah! that will cost but it's better than ending up as this unfortunate jet did. I'm no pilot but I know that pilots do not deliberatly fly into a supercell, I've been wondering about that since the day I heard about it.

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TrekkinBob

02:01 AMJun 28 2009

Gbuick87gnx 06:03 PMJun 27 2009 Yeah, Parrot, God doesn't exist......In your life, in your heart, in your twisted brain, and in your soul. So speak for yourself. As for the rest of us,we're smart enough to know that dogs, cats, birds, alligators, eagles, lions and tigers and bears, (oh my!), sheep, cattle, falcons, squirrels, ferrets, etc..etc...all in male and female, didn't come from no stupid big bang. .................this is demonstrating intelligence - dissing scientists who have studied origins of the universe since the 1800s with ever more accurate instruments and mathematical equations based on light spectroscopy measurement ? And you go to Sunday School and think you know more ? Jesus, some religious people are moronic.

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Rthate

01:43 AMJun 28 2009

Ships hit icebergs, place fall from the sky or crash into buildings, trains collide with each other,and cars..well I won't even get into that!! Guess I'll just stay at home and quarrel with the wife..not that I have any chance of ever winning, but at least there is a thread of hope!

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DCCDSOUTH

01:09 AMJun 28 2009

Hey. I wonder if Obama knows how much carbon dioxide a nuke releases into the air. I'm betting he doesn't care.

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BLHope

01:06 AMJun 28 2009

I'm only surprised that Iran's SHAHmajinedad has yet to get around to blaming the CIA and Pres. Obama for this tragedy, as well as the "murder" of Michael Jackson.

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LongleggedloserL

01:02 AMJun 28 2009

Braunzie2 12:36 AMJun 28 2009 Brazil is cheap.@@@@@@ I did not know it was for sale!

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Braunzie2

12:36 AMJun 28 2009

Brazil is cheap.

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Wishlosangeles

12:29 AMJun 28 2009

NLEWIS 9996: What 3 terrorists? Why don't you tell us?

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x3adm babyy

12:25 AMJun 28 2009

it's a shame these innocent lives had to be taken in such a violent way. This just supports why i will never fly on a plane, no matter how safe anyone says it is.

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