Air France orders vital components replaced on jets

Air France gave a possible clue to the loss of its Flight 447 tonight by announcing it was to replace a vital instrument sensor on all Airbus jets.

The memo was sent to all the airline’s pilots, but the company refused to comment on it saying it was confidential.

Airbus said the move was part of the investigation into the crash that killed 228 people flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

The memo said Air France has been replacing the instruments – known as pitot tubes and responsible for feeding flying speed data to the aircraft’s instruments and computers. It said it will finish the task in “coming weeks”.

One theory of the crash is that the pitot tubes may have iced over, giving incorrect information which then led to the plane flying too fast or slow in rough weather.

If the instruments were wrong, the jet could have been travelling at the wrong speed as it hit turbulence from violent thunderstorms.

Airliners need to be flying at a precise speed when encountering violent weather, too fast and they run the risk of breaking apart. Too slow, and they could lose control.

Meanwhile the Airbus factory has sent an advisory to all operators of the A330 model reminding them of how to handle the plane in conditions similar to those experienced by Flight 447, which was an Airbus A330-200 version.

Meteorologists said the Air France jet entered an unusual storm with 100 mph updrafts that acted as a vacuum, sucking water up from the ocean. The moist air rushed up to the plane’s high altitude, where it quickly froze in minus-40 degree temperatures. The updrafts also would have created dangerous turbulence.

The plane’s computer systems ultimately failed, and the plane broke apart, probably in midair, and crashed into the Atlantic on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

Earlier French transport minister Dominique Bussereau said reports that debris from Flight 447 had been found in the Atlantic were wrong.

He said he regretted that an announcement by Brazilian teams that they had found wreckage turned out to be false.

The Brazilian air force said yesterday that a helicopter plucked an cargo pallet from the sea that came the Airbus, but then said six hours later that it was not from the plane.

“French authorities have been saying for several days that we have to be extremely prudent,” Mr Bussereau said. “Our planes and naval ships have seen nothing.”

He said the search must continue and stressed that the priority was finding the flight recorders. The plane went down Sunday night with 228 people on board in the world’s worst aviation disaster since 2001.

France’s defence minister and the Pentagon have said there were no signs that terrorism was involved. Brazil’s defence minister said the possibility was never considered.