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Le Figaro - France : Les recherches de l'AF 447 virent au conflit d'experts
The research of AF 447 saw the conflict of experts
INFO LE FIGARO - The third season of research should be completed Tuesday morning on a failure. The BEA and the army opposed to the position of the wreckage.
The drama of the AF 447 is a mystery for now. The third season of research should be completed Tuesday morning on a failure because the investigators are currently on route Recife in Brazil without being able to locate the wreckage. Yet, despite two months of operation in the South Atlantic, the uncertainty has never been greater, as the experts disagree on the position of the device.
Background. On April 28, investigators returned to Recife to BEA after one month of research at sea after a crew change, they go back to finish searching the area for the third campaign. This area of 2500 km2 was defined from the study of drift of aircraft debris and the bodies of victims recovered in June 2009. A week later, once the theater. The army announced that it detected the signal from the black box: it is a distributed signals heard in June by the nuclear submarine, the Emerald and managed to positively identify the signal emitted by the black boxes of ten months AF447 earlier. "We sent twenty Emerald positions when the signal was seen black boxes," says one close to the matter. This new area south of the last known position of the device indicates that the Air France flight was turned around before crashing into the ocean.
The Seabed Worker, who participates in research 40 nautical miles further north, was immediately dispatched. It passes the new area in detail. In vain. "There was nothing to find in the south, said a member of the investigation. Everything has been raked. "Seabed The Worker then finish off again to explore the area of the BEA without broadening the scope defined by the army. "They spent 24 hours and no more on our area," says a source at the Ministry of Defence. The ocean is vast and we are the only ones to offer a scientific data and tangible. "
Reportedly, the Army has conducted tests in the Mediterranean with black boxes to identify their signal. According to a source close to the BEA, focusing on sounds recorded in June 2009, the Army had confused signals trials in the Mediterranean and those of the AF 447. She would have indicated an area that was not good investigators. "There has never been south of 447 AF, we lost one week, said a relative of BEA. The Navy wanted further work before announcing anything but the Ministry of Defence wanted to communicate quickly and we cut the grass under foot. "
"Explanations unclear»
Since then, relations between the BEA, under the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Defence will be a bit cold. "The explanation of the army are unclear insists near BEA, and since it's radio silence on the subject. Asked by the Figaro, the army has not this story:" We are The third deterrent to the world and we are not here to please public opinion, says a source at the Ministry of Defence. We have removed some positions, but we maintain that certain positions are communicated to BEA correct. They have not been explored: BEA prefer to say that the army was wrong rather than saying that we received the signal from the black boxes but no one may know where he ever comes. "
The propagation of sound in water environment is indeed very complex. The black boxes of the Ethiopian Airlines jet that crashed last January off the coast of Lebanon were heard at 16 nautical miles from the crash site while recording only emit 5000. "If nuclear deterrence is hiding under water, is that this environment is complex," said one source at the Ministry of Defence. Today we have the probabilities of position of the wreckage. '
A fourth round is planned
The failure of this third season does not mean that the wreckage of flight AF 447 will never be found. Indeed, a fourth phase of research could be organized after-school new data from the army and the drift models of aircraft debris. The BEA has been able to study up on the drift and returns with data finer than the models that have so far been exploited.
"It is sufficient that the BEA was mistaken from 0.2 to 0.3 knots (about 0.4 to 0.6 km / h, Ed) for our area is the same," says a source at the Ministry of Defence. The echoes of the AF 447 will also be re-analyzed. The definition is complicated by their position on terrain and the phenomena of echoes. Asked by Le Figaro, a government source said "there is little chance that this new campaign, if it occurs, should be held before next autumn."