Air France union: All Airbus jets all have new speed monitors installed after Flight 447 crash

September 23rd, 2009 EASA issues warning for Airbus instrumentBERLIN — The European Aviation Safety Agency has issued a safety warning for an instrument to measure air speed that is used on Airbus A330 and A340 jets. The directive in effect from Wednesday says malfunctions have been reported in the instruments, known as pitot probes.

August 21st, 2009 Air France sued over plane crash investigationPARIS — A lawyer says the family of a French flight attendant who perished in an Air France plane crash on June 1 over the Atlantic Ocean is suing the airline to force it to release information on what caused the tragedy. The Airbus jet went down while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

July 31st, 2009 PARIS - Two months after the crash of an Air France Airbus A330 into the Atlantic, the France-based aircraft manufacturer is urging companies flying its planes to replace their air speed measurement devices, an Airbus spokesman said Friday. Stephen Schaffrath said all airlines using Pitot tubes manufactured by Thales are concerned by the recommendation, which was drawn up in collaboration with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

July 28th, 2009 Flight 'incident' puts speed sensors in spotlightPARIS — The pilot of an Air France plane flying from Rome to Paris this month spent a minute without information on the speed of the aircraft, which was equipped with new generation speed sensors installed after the June crash of another flight, the newspaper Le Figaro reported in an article for its Thursday edition. The report said the lives of passengers on the July 13 flight were not in danger.

July 9th, 2009 Remains of Flight 447 en route to France for probePARIS — More than 600 pieces of Air France Flight 447 are being sent from Brazil to France by ship to be studied further for clues into the June 1 crash, Airbus said Thursday. The disaster overshadowed a meeting of Air France-KLM shareholders on Thursday, with pilots saying the company didn't do enough to prevent the plane from crashing into the Atlantic Ocean.

July 8th, 2009 Air France pilots demand probe into speed sensorsPARIS — Air France pilots have asked French crash investigators for details of the airline's past problems with the speed sensors suspected of being a factor in the crash of Air France Flight 447. The Airbus A330 plane came down in the Atlantic Ocean on June 1 after running into thunderstorms en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

July 3rd, 2009 PARIS - The Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean last month, killing all 228 people on board plunged vertically from the sky so suddenly that passengers and crew on board did not even have time to inflate their life jackets. The Telegraph quoted investigators as saying that the Airbus "descended vertically" and dropped 35,000 feet in a matter of seconds, hitting the water in its exact flying position.

June 18th, 2009 Airbus signs order for 50 jets with Wizz AirLE BOURGET, France — Airbus says it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Central and Eastern European low-cost carrier Wizz Air for the sale of 50 A320 single aisle jets. The deal is expected to become a firm order shortly, Airbus' John Leahy said at a press briefing Thursday.

June 16th, 2009 French: Search for Flight 447 to continueLE BOURGET, France — The arduous mid-Atlantic search for the remains of Air France Flight 447 will go on as long as there is hope of finding the plane's black boxes, the French defense minister said Tuesday. Herve Morin and his Brazilian counterpart Nelson Jobim met at the Paris Air Show and shared notes on progress of the search, which includes the Brazilian military, a French submarine and Dutch ships towing two high-tech U.S.

June 15th, 2009 Speed monitors switched on Air France jetsPARIS — Air France has finished replacing air speed monitors on all its long-haul Airbus aircraft even though the cause of the Flight 447 disaster remains a mystery, a pilots' union official said Monday. The search for the A330's black boxes was reinforced Monday with a high-tech U.S.

June 11th, 2009 Air France CEO 'not convinced' sensors cause crashPARIS — Air France's CEO said Thursday that he is "not convinced" faulty speed monitors caused the crash of Flight 447, which went down on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people aboard. Replacement external speed monitors — or Pitot tubes — for jet models of the same type as the crashed plane arrived three days before the fatal accident, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon told journalists.

June 10th, 2009 Airlines replace monitors after Air France crashRECIFE, Brazil — A French nuclear submarine reached the crash zone of Air France Flight 447 on Wednesday to comb the Atlantic depths for black boxes that should help determine what brought the Airbus down in the sea off Brazil with 228 people on board. The slow-moving attack sub Emeraude will be able to trawl patches of about 13 square miles (35 square kilometers) a day trying to pick up the boxes' acoustic beacons or "pingers," which are expected to start to fade 30 days after the crash, French armed forces spokesman Christophe Prazuck said Wednesday.

June 9th, 2009 Airline chiefs dismiss safety fears over A330 jetsKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Several airline chiefs dismissed safety fears over the Airbus A330 on Tuesday, saying they were confident of the plane's reliability despite last week's Air France jet crash. Emirates airlines President Tim Clark said the Dubai-based company has a fleet of 29 A330-200 planes that have been flying since 1998.

June 8th, 2009 Air France union demands new instrumentsPARIS — An Air France union urged pilots Monday to refuse to fly Airbus A330s and A340s unless their external speed and altitude monitors have been replaced. The instruments, known as Pitot tubes, have drawn attention in the investigation into the crash of Air France Flight 447.

June 4th, 2009 French say Air France plane speed not knownPARIS — The French agency investigating the crash of the Air France jet over the Atlantic says automatic messages received from the plane have failed to show exactly how fast the aircraft was flying. The Accident Investigation Agency says only two findings have been established.