AF 447 Search to resume

[Chris Scott]

Oh dear,

Have downloaded and installed this free MP4 player, but can't get anything to run on it: either from mm43's link, or direct from the BEA website... Ideas, anyone, please?

Chris

[GarageYears]

No problem here viewing the video. Using a Mac with QuickTime.

Very clear images visible of the sonar scans.

Unfortunately my French is non-existent otherwise I'm sure I would have gotten more from this.

- GY

[Gringobr]

..

Use VLC player

[cc45]

Updated BEA map of search area completed

Thanks mm43 for the link to the new BEA video on the at sea data analysis. This video plays nicely with QuickTime.

More info is available from BEA at
Information, 14/04/2010

Here is the area searched as of April 14 provided by BEA.

[mm43]

BEA - Update:Sea Searches - 14 April 2010

Flight AF 447 on 1st june 2009
A330-203, registered F-GZCP

Update on the sea searches as of 14 April 2010

Since the beginning of the searches on 2 April:

* The Orion, a towed sonar from the « Anne Candies », has covered over 1,350 km2 ;
* The three Remus autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) from the « Seabed Worker » has carried out twenty dives and covered a zone of almost 1,700 km2.

The aforementioned areas include the zones outside of the initial search zone, covered for operational reasons, and zones that overlap between the various sonars.

Progress was slowed on the afternoon of Friday 9 April due to the loss of the signal from one of the Remus. The latter had surfaced during the night of Saturday to Sunday and was later recovered 100 km away in the north-east of the zone. During the time the search for the Remus was under way, the Anne Candies team continued operations with the Orion.

Despite heavy rain and stormy periods, the meteorological situation in the zone enabled the team to continue to work in good conditions.

A high resolution image showing the area covered is available at:-

http://www.bea.aero/en/enquetes/flig...4042010.en.jpg

-------------------

mm43

[Machaca]

Video Player

Gringobr is correct - use the free VLC Media Player. It works on Win, Mac & Linux boxes and plays virtually every audio & video format.

Get it here.

[HazelNuts39]

Video player

Machaca #706;
thanks for the link. The Free Media Player didn't work with me, the VLC works just fine under Windows Vista.
HN39

[mm43]

Video Player

Chris Scott; HN39;
My fault. I didn't check the contents of the link, and just assumed that the player I was linking to was the same as I had used.

EDIT :: removed mp4 player link.

Converting the mp4 format to to wmv does nothing for it, so I haven't bothered doing it this time.

mm43

[Chris Scott]

Thanks Gringobr and others,

The video runs at very good resolution on VLC under Windows XP. Usual problem (as in France) of the French dubbing drowning the English - my French isn't quite up to it at the first listening. Very impressed that the BEA is doing so much to keep interested parties in the loop.

Thanks again mm43, and will try the new version - zip decompression permitting - as a back-up.

Chris

[PJ2]

mm43, it is an impressive video, thank you.

Machaca, thank you for the VLC link.

HN39, the MP4 player didn't work for me either - the VLC seems more substantial.

PJ2

[Checkerboard 13]

Very interesting video.
Played fine for me with Quicktime on an XP PC.

[Bobman84]

I'm able to play the .mp4 files using Windows Media Player. Just right click the file and select 'Open With' -> 'Windows Media Player'. Hope it works on some of your PCs too.

Good video!

[alph2z]

Cute video, but nothing special is said in it except that the sonar-grams are viewed 3 times as they are processed to final referenced form.

As expected, the plane is hard to find in the sonar-grams.
.

[FlyBoy737800]

They DON'T want to find the Air France A330

Look at the BIG picture – this aircraft will never be found or raised.

What would it do for future orders of Airbus aircrafts as well as a substantial loss of French national prestige..

Please broaden you focus people ,. .
The $$$ and National Prestige outweigh the public's right to know and safety considerations.


Sad but True

[mm43]

Wind (10m) 090T/10-15KT, sig sea/swell 100T/2m, period 9 sec becoming 090T/10KT, 080T/1.5m x 8 sec during next 48 hours. Mostly cloudy with wind gusting to 20kts in passing squalls/showers.

In other words, the conditions are generally good and interspersed with ITCZ type convective winds and precipitation.

Hopefully, we will get some promising news from the BEA in the next day or two, as I suspect the search is moving into the southwest corner of the 40NM radius northern semi-circle. Objects sitting on the bottom, particularly large objects, will give themselves away due to the distinctive shadow area the sonar return leaves behind them. Similar to the radar return (or lack of it ) behind an active Cummulo Nimbus.

Happy hunting folks.

mm43

[broadreach]

Latest three positions of both vessels, transmitted via satellite:

Seabed Worker
GMT: 18 Apr 2010 06:42 COG: 52 SOG: 0.5 Latitude: 3°18'47''N Longitude: -32°-4'-13''W
GMT: 18 Apr 2010 05:36 COG: 265.8 SOG: 0.4 Latitude: 3°18'47''N Longitude: -32°-4'-13''W
GMT: 17 Apr 2010 20:46 COG: 255.6 SOG: 1.8 Latitude: 3°19'30''N Longitude: -32°-1'-21''W

Anne Candies
GMT: 18 Apr 2010 05:37 COG: 172 SOG: 2.7 Latitude: 3°30'31''N Longitude: -31°-27'-30''W
GMT: 17 Apr 2010 07:56 COG: 349 SOG: 3.0 Latitude: 3°23'39''N Longitude: -31°-27'-41''W
GMT: 16 Apr 2010 19:48 COG: 345 SOG: 4.6 Latitude: 2°49'14''N Longitude: -31°-24'-56''W

COG: Course over ground
SOG: Speed over ground

Source: Lloyds MIU Seasearcher service

[mm43]

broadreach;

Thanks for posting the satellite positions for both vessels.

I have plotted those positions, and it appears that the "Seabed Worker" is just maintaining her position well to the west of the search area. The "Anne Candies" seems to operating at towing speed and covering an area in which Météo France originally calculated a back-drift position for the Vertical Stabilizer.



It seems to me that nothing of note has so far been observed in the analyzed side-scan results. With many days of this search phase remaining, I suspect a major rethink is now taking place, e.g. what to do now!

Looking forward to the BEA's next search update.

EDIT :: Plotted the towed track for Anne Candies. Spot position heading shows vessel yawing in swell.

Also, on further analysis, the Seabed Worker has been operating within the olive area for the past 5 days. Possibly technical problems with the vessel or equipment, or could just be doing some calibration work with the Remus and ROV.

mm43

[mm43]

The graphic in post #715 above has been updated to show the work area of "Anne Candies" and "Seabed Worker" to 19/1620z.

The "Seabed Worker" has been moving around in the olive area, probably following and recovering as required the Remus AUV's. There are too many positions to show on a chart of this scale, and the last one available for the day has been plotted. Meanwhile, the "Anne Candies" is continuing to tow the Orion along 175°T/355°T tracks and making its way slowly to the eastward with each swathe.

The area the "Seabed Worker" is covering has not previously been identified as an area of interest, but there may be some reason to suspect that AF447 was airborne longer than has previously been believed.

mm43

[Chris Scott]

Thanks, mm43 (and broadreach),

All very clear. For what it's worth, we also haven't given up on this... Good luck to all concerned.

Chris

[mm43]

BEA - Update: English subtitles to First Operational Dives video

The BEA have added an English text page to accompany their First Operational Dives video.

-----------------

originally posted by HN39;
- or the groundspeed in the last 4'40'' was greater than 514kt?

That's been delivered with a fair bit of "off spin"

mm43