Originally Posted by
Ninja as
I stand to be corrected but there is more than ATC radar cover in this area especially with the sensitivity of a nuclear power plant on the coast.
Standing by!
Yes that puzzled me as well as there is at least a dozen civil radar covering the area, and of course the French and UK air force primary radars. now how low they go is another question , which I do not have the answer.. Tracking in real time is difficult, but post accident , with filters ?
Anyway to locate a small aircraft in the sea with accuracy is very difficult , even when you know precisely where it went down .
A Cessna 206 went down 10 years back taking off from Ajaccio Corsica only a few miles from the coast in daytime, SAR had the exact position the a/c went down , the pax were in a small dinghy , helicopter was on site within minutes but it took them over 7 hours to find them. In fact they only found them when it was night , using IR googles , one pilot spotted the small lamp of one pax life vest ! . The sea was rough. The PIC, was an AF 777 pilot with is wife and parents on board, ,he wrote a few years ago a very good detailed article about it in an aviation magazine in France .
Some info here just found on internet for those interested : ( in french ) :.
C206 ajaccio 2009