HN39,
Perhaps more a function on how the radar was being used and less on whether cells were being hidden. From the first BEA interim report,
Flight AF459 (Airbus A330-203) passed at the level of the ORARO waypoint approximately 37 minutes after l’AF447. The sky was clear but the half-moon, visible to the aft left of the aircraft, did not make it possible to see the contour of the cloud mass distinctly. After flying through a turbulent zone in the head of a cumulus congestus formation at the level of NATAL, without having detected this zone on the radar, he selected gain in MAX mode. At about 2 h 00, he observed a first echo that differed significantly depending on whether the radar’s gain was in CAL or MAX mode. The TILT was set between -1° and 1.5°. He decided to take evasive action to the west, which resulted in a deviation of 20 NM to the left of the route. During this evasive action, a vast squall line with an estimated length of 150 NM appeared on the screen, which was set to a scale of 160 NM. The echoes were yellow and red when the radar was set with gain on the MAX position and green and yellow when the gain was on the CAL position. No lightning was observed.
ATLANTICO control, informed by the crew of their decision to avoid this squall line by taking evasive action to the east, asked them to return to the airway as soon as they could. This evasive action meant the aircraft flew between 70 and 80 NM to the right of the planned route. In addition, the crew was authorised to climb from FL350 to FL370.
Similar narrative detail is not provided for the actions of the pilots on the Iberia and Lufthansa flights, who also deviated.
bearfoil, there were 50 bodies identified through autopsy. The second interim BEA report says this:
Forty-three of the victims had fractures of the spinal column, the thorax and the pelvis. The fractures described were located mainly at the level of the transition vertebrae. The compression fractures of the spinal column associated with the fractures of the pelvis(2), observed on passengers seated throughout the cabin, are compatible with the effect, on a seated person, of high acceleration whose component in the axis of the spinal column is oriented upwards through the pelvis.
(2) Fractures of the pelvis can also be associated with the wearing of a seat belt.
Whether from deliberate or imprecise phrasing, the above language read literally suggests the 43 victims so described were passengers, with the results of the five crew autopsies omitted.