From AFP via the ABC (Oz) website a few minutes ago ...
Black boxes of Rio-Paris air crash plane found
Posted 5 minutes ago
French accident investigators say they have located the black box flight recorders from an Air France jet that crashed in the Atlantic in June last year, killing 228 people.
They added, however, that they might not be able to retrieve them.
The crash of flight AF 447 was the worst in Air France's 75-year history.
On June 1, the Airbus A330 came down in the Atlantic as it was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, resulting in the deaths of all passengers and crew on board.
The cause of the accident is still unknown, but investigators say malfunctioning airspeed probes on the aircraft were a factor.
The flight data and cockpit conversations recorded on the black boxes are crucial to determining the circumstances of the crash.
A three-month search last year by a French navy submarine and sonar-equipped ships failed to locate the devices.
A private memorial was held for the victims in Rio de Janeiro in November.
In the same month, relatives of eight of the victims filed lawsuits against Air France seeking damages.
The lawsuit filed in the US state of Illinios alleges negligence and products liability on the part of Airbus and the makers of various instruments used on the flight.
"As a direct and proximate result of the defendants' negligence, the subject aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, killing plaintiff's descendants, causing severe terror and pain prior to impact, and resulting in both personal and pecuniary injuries," the lawsuit said.
- AFP