Data recovered from the Air France A330 FDR

Investigators trying to determine why an Air France plane crashed mysteriously two years ago have recovered the complete contents of the flight data recorder and the last two hours of cockpit conversation, they announced Monday.It will take several weeks to analyze the data, French air accident experts said.All 228 people aboard Air France 447 were killed when the Airbus A330 belly-flopped into the ocean June 1, 2009, in stormy weather. The cause of the crash is still not known.

Discovering that there was data on the recorders "is excellent news. It is really going to help us work out what happened on that plane," said Martine Del Bono, spokeswoman for France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA). The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder were found at the beginning of May after an unprecedented series of submarine searches of a mountain range 3,900 meters (12,700 feet) under the ocean. They were brought to the surface and taken to Paris by ship and plane.

The investigators also recovered two bodies from the fuselage -- after finding only about 50 bodies in the days immediately after the crash.

They will not bring more bodies up from the ocean if they cannot identify the two they already have, they said Thursday. Those two bodies are being examined to see if there is enough DNA to identify them, investigators said, adding that they hope to have results by Wednesday. If they can identify the remains, they will consider bringing up other bodies from the wreckage. The bulk of the plane was located earlier this year and contains many more human remains, according to investigators.

Recovering more bodies will be a difficult task, with miles of cable required to bring each one up over a period of three hours, they said. Investigators also brought an engine and an avionics bay containing computers to the surface, they said. The pilots of Air France 447 lost contact with air traffic controllers on June 1, 2009, while flying across an area of the Atlantic known for severe turbulence, officials said. But exactly what caused the plane to plunge into the ocean remains a mystery.

The plane slammed into the water while en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, falling so fast that air masks did not have time to deploy. The fuselage was discovered in April with bodies still inside, investigators said.Some relatives of those who died have expressed reservations about remains being brought to the surface.

Last month Robert Soulas, head of a support group for families of flight victims, said: "For me, personally I would like to leave the bodies of my children, my two children, on the seabed." Other relatives have called for the bodies to be recovered.

Air France crash - black box located.

Investigators have located and recovered the memory unit of the flight data recorder of a 2009 Air France flight - a remarkable deep-sea discovery they hope will explain why the aircraft went down in a remote area of the mid-Atlantic, killing all 228 people on board. France's air accident investigation agency BEA said a search by a submarine probing some 3,900 meters (12,800 feet) below the ocean's surface located and recovered the unit Sunday morning. The unit is now aboard the ship Ile de Sein, the statement said.

The statement also included photos of the recorder - a red cylinder partially buried in sand on the sea floor. Judging from the photos, the unit appeared to be in good condition. Last month, the agency said the undersea search had identified the "chassis" that had held the recorder, but said the memory unit was still missing. The flight data recorder stores data from the flight. Another so-called "black box" records cockpit conversations.

Investigators hope Sunday's remarkable discovery will allow them to determine what caused the June 1, 2009 crash of Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to the French capital, Paris. The aircraft slammed into the Atlantic northeast of Brazil after running into an intense high-altitude thunderstorm. Automatic messages sent by the Airbus 330's computers showed it was receiving false air speed readings from sensors known as pitot tubes. Investigators have said the crash was likely caused by a series of problems, and not just sensor error.

The crash site was so remote and in such a deep area of the Atlantic that the bulk of the wreckage was only recently discovered, thanks to a deep-sea search. Experts have said that without retrieving the voice and data recorders there would be almost no chance of determining what caused the crash - the worst disaster in Air France's history.

Passengers might fly supersonic very soon

Supersonic passenger travel was grounded in 2003 when British Airways and Air France cancelled their transatlantic Concorde service because of falling revenues and rising maintenance costs. The Aerion Supersonic Business Jet (SBJ) promises to help travelers break the sound barrier again. Named after a fleet-of-foot horse in Greek mythology, the Aerion SBJ will be able to carry a dozen passengers at speeds of up to Mach 1.5 for more than 4,000 miles. It is currently undergoing proof-of-concept aerodynamic testing of critical components in NASA wind tunnels and under the belly of a NASA F-15 supersonic jet. This Aerion SBJ will make it possible to fly from Paris to New York in four hours and 14 minutes, saving three hours off the trip compared to conventional jets.
And even in the United States, where supersonic flight is banned because of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sonic boom restrictions, the SBJ will be able to fly at a high subsonic speed of Mach 0.98 because of its unique, patented wing design, reducing coast-to-coast travel by 41 minutes vs. conventional aircraft.
Design breakthrough
The Aerion SBJ's wing represents a breakthrough in supersonic design and is the key to why the SBJ will be able to avoid the fate of the Concorde. Drag - the resistance caused by air as an airplane flies though it - is the enemy of speed and the enemy of economical operation. The Aerion SBJ's magic sauce is the use of supersonic natural laminar flow (SNLF) technology in the design of the wing. SNLF reduces drag.
Aerion's design completes a virtuous circle - it satisfies environmental regulations while providing economical operation and high performance.  Fastest aircraft are in museums
The passenger jet has been in the performance doldrums for nearly half a century. The first Boeing passenger jet, the four-engine B-707 introduced in the late '50s had a design speed of Mach 0.83. Today's state-of-the art commercial passenger jets such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus 380 and business jets such the Gulfstream are basically still in the same Mach range because of their wing design, Aerion wants to change that.

The company hopes to have its new generation aircraft certified by the FAA and in the air by 2015. In spite of the worldwide recession that has toiled the entire aviation industry, Aerion has received 50 deposits of $250,000 for the $80 million for SBJ. The company is actively discussing development of the aircraft with a number of potential OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners and hopes to have a deal in place by the end of the year. Aerion also sees a supersonic future that involves larger commercial passenger jets.

Air France jet makes emergency landing after bomb thoax

An Air France passenger jet headed from Rio to Paris made an emergency landing in northeastern Brazil on Saturday night due to a bomb threat. All 405 passengers and 18 crew members were safely evacuated from Air France Flight 443, said Jorge Andrade, a spokesman for airport authority Infraero. Recife international airport was closed for about 30 minutes but reopened after officials isolated the jet, he added.Solange Argenta, an Infraero spokeswoman at the Recife airport, said authorities were examining the jet to determine if the threat was real.

"They're still inspecting the aircraft. It is possible that it could be cleared and resume its flight tonight," Argenta said.Argenta said the threat was phoned in to the Rio airport after the flight took off at 4:20 p.m. (3:20 p.m. EDT; 1920 GMT). The plane landed in Recife at 7:53 p.m. (6:53 p.m. EDT; 2253 GMT). Flight 443 was on the same route as an Air France jet that crashed last June off Brazil's northeastern coast, killing all 228 on board. While no definite cause has been determined in the crash, authorities have repeatedly ruled out foul play.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/brazil-air-france-jet-lands-after-bomb-threat-36778?cp

Demand on Asian routes boost European airlines

Stronger demand on Asian routes boosted air traffic in June, three European airlines said on Wednesday, noting a rise in sales of business class tickets as economies begin to recover from the global downturn.
Air France-KLM, Europe's largest airline, posted a strong rise in revenue in the month as growth in both passenger and cargo activity outpaced capacity, which had deliberately been held down during the recession.
Scandinavian airline SAS and Finnish national carrier Finnair also said passenger traffic had risen last month, by 0.4 percent and 12 percent year-on-year, respectively.
All three airlines attributed part of the boost to a recovering market for air travel in Asia, where economic growth has accelerated. SAS and Finnair both said Asian traffic was up 26 percent in June.
"Particularly corporate travel has increased ... The demand comes, above all, from European and Asian markets," Finnair Chief Executive Mika Vehvilainen said.
Franco-Dutch Air France-KLM said passenger traffic rose 4.7 percent and its load factor, which measures how well an airline fills its planes, rose 3.5 points to 83.8 percent.

Hunt for the crashed Air France jet extended

The French investigators on Tuesday said that the under water hunt for the wreckage of the crashed jet, an A330 killing all 228 people on board has been extended through late May. But the hunt will resume with fewer resources, the French accident investigation agency BEA is still confident enough to zero in on the location of the crash site. The BEA also confirmed that only one of the previous two ships will hunt for the black box as one vessel is carrying US Navy owned equipment and is unavailable. Air France and Air Bus the manufacturer of jet will sponsor euro 1.5 million each for the search operation that will carry on until May 25th.

Air France flight 447 still a mystery

The three week search for the Air France jet that crashed June last year in the Atlantic proved to be unsuccessful. The AF 447 an A330 with 228 passengers crashed due to bad weather on-route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil killing all passengers and crew on board. The investigators are still in the hunt for the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) that could possibly explain how the plain went down.
It has been estimated that so far the French Government, Air France and Airbus have together spent nearly $40 million in search of the wreckage, where they have been searching approximately 1,200 square miles.