Curious
 

Some of the news reports suggest that the field was found on a wide, flat area fairly close to the LKP. If so, why was the signal sent by the boxes not detectable early on in the search? Sorry if this is a dumb question!

Is the place where the AC has been found near the area where the Emeraude sub heard pings from the recorders ?

Full BEA presentation (PDF)
 

point.presse.4avril2011.pdf

More Pictures
 

No, the pings were detected (very faintly) at the extreme west edge of the search radius. Which calls into question the detection - acoustic searches were made much closer to the wreck site than that.

Though, one consideration to bear in mind - we have not yet seen any wreckage of the tail section, where the recorders would be. It could possibly have broken off (in the air or at impact) and, being more buoyant than the rest of the airframe, could have drifted farther as it settled to the seabed.

Publication BEA with pics and position:

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol....4avril2011.pdf

skadi

Can anybody tell whether the gear was up or down?

Wreckage:

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol....s/wreckage.jpg

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol....mages/wing.jpg


http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol....ing-gear-b.jpg

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol....ing-gear-a.jpg

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol....s/engine-b.jpg

http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol....s/engine-a.jpg

During the press conference, there was one question about the landing gear. The answer was something like "probably ejected when the plane hit the surface". At least, would mean it wasn't necessarily down.

Position of wreckage
 

The last page of the presentation shows the location about 10 km at about 010 from LKP.

The cowlings have been blown off the engines. There are some big pieces, but so far I don't see or expect any intact fuselage sections.

Where exactly are the CVR and FDR mounted in what kind of structure?

...does anyone have an idea of how they would lift the wreckage to the surface from that extreme depth (+13,000 feet)? I assume the pictures have been taken by an un-manned sub; right?

Better be cautious with the last page. It points a specific location, but during the press conference it was made clear the plane was "somewhere" in that abyssal plain, so the map means nothing more. They definitely don't want abyssal paparazis.

gear up or down?
 

To my untrained eye, the fourth picture in takata's sequence shows the (RH?) main gear in the extended position, with some outboard wing structure still attached.

regards,
HN39

The arrow is pointing at the location of the abyssal plain, not to the crash site which is located somewhere on this dark blue spot.

It is taken from one of the three Remus (those small yellow torpedoes used for scanning the sea bed) in another close up dive for taking those pictures after completing their area scan.
For the lift to the surface, they would certainly use some inflatable stuff attached by ROVs.

HN39,
I agree that one of the MLGs looks down (not sure which). Perhaps the uplock could have been disengaged by the sea-level impact, and loss of hydraulics might allow it to dangle?

takata,
d'Achord. It's still surprisingly close to the LKP.

It will be interesting to have revealed the relative positions of the items pictured, not to mention the full inventory of aircraft parts present in this debris field. This section of the aeroplane seems to have been tracking about either 070 or 250 as it hit the plaine abyssale. Whether that tells us anything about in-flight heading is another matter.

Chris
They still don't have those informations at the moment. Those pictures are taken from the first close up to verify if it was the right site. It is what they are doing right now, taking the measures and geo-references of all the spoted wreckage (quadrillage).

And yes, it is still very close to the LKP when considering that the crash happened at least 5 minutes later than this "Last Know Position" was recorded (02.10) ...

Here's an overlay of mm43's earlier map and today's BEA map:

http://i337.photobucket.com/albums/n...F447site03.jpg

The yellow circles are drawn at multiples of 10NM radii from the Last Known Position.

Interesting...
 

I find it rather interesting to notice, that the wreckage is generally spread east-west/west-east (flighpath should've been NNE). Unxpected.

(in reference to http://www.bea.aero/fr/enquetes/vol....sn109a700m.jpg)

D.

Hi,

From the state of the engine (s ?) .. seem's the contact with the sea was not a soft one ....
They shows evident signs of violent destruction IMHO