Brief ‘incident’ on Air France flight puts speed sensors back in spotlight

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.

August 8th, 2009 AP Enterprise: Faulty speed sensors found on jetsWASHINGTON —The discovery of faulty airspeed sensors on some Northwest Airlines jets suggests the equipment problems are more widespread than previously believed and could provide clues to the cause of the Air France crash that killed 228 people in June. Federal aviation officials say that on at least a dozen recent flights malfunctioning equipment made it impossible for the pilots to know how fast they were flying.

August 7th, 2009 AP Enterprise: Airspeed systems failed on US jetsWASHINGTON —On at least a dozen recent flights by U.S. jetliners, malfunctioning equipment made it impossible for pilots to know how fast they were flying, federal investigators have discovered.

August 7th, 2009 APNewsBreak: Airspeed systems failed on US planesWASHINGTON — On at least a dozen recent flights by U.S. jetliners, malfunctioning equipment made it impossible for pilots to know how fast they were flying, federal investigators have discovered.

July 31st, 2009 Euro regulators order Airbus sensors replacedBRUSSELS — European air safety regulators told world airlines on Friday they will have to replace hundreds of air speed sensors of the type that may have contributed to the Air France Airbus A330 crash in the Atlantic Ocean in June. The announcement came after Airbus recommended that airlines flying its planes exchange some of the speed sensors manufactured by Thales Corp.

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 2nd, 2009 French say sensors not cause of Flight 447 crashLE BOURGET, France — A French investigator says speed sensors were a factor but were not the cause of the crash of Air France flight 447. Alain Bouillard, leading the investigation into the June 1 crash for the French accident investigation agency BEA, says the sensors, called Pitot tubes, were not the only factor.

June 26th, 2009 NTSB probes 2 incidents involving Airbus A330sWASHINGTON — Federal safety officials said Thursday they are investigating two incidents in which airspeed and altitude indications in the cockpits of Airbus A330 planes may have malfunctioned, including one that took place ten days before the same type of plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 aboard. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement that the first incident occurred May 21 when TAM Airlines Flight 8091 flying from Miami to Sao Paulo, Brazil, experienced a loss of primary speed and altitude information while cruising.

June 19th, 2009 Air France to give crash victims €17,500 advancePARIS — Air France said Friday it would give about €17,500 ($24,000) as an advance to the families of the victims of the crash of Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Remains of some of the 228 dead, and hundreds of pieces of wreckage reclaimed from the sea off Brazil are helping experts build a picture of what happened to the A330.

June 11th, 2009 PARIS - The chances of recovering the black boxes of the Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic last week are slim, the carrier's head, Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, said here Thursday. "It would be quite an accomplishment if the flight data recorders were recovered," Gourgeon told journalists, adding that the devices had never before been recovered from such ocean depths as is being attempted.

June 11th, 2009 LONDON - Two pieces of new evidence have suggested that the Air France jet broke up mid-air in minutes, rather than in one catastrophic incident.earchers in the Atlantic fear ocean storms would have scattered the debris and bodies further apart Firstly, bodies from Flight 447 had been picked up from locations more than 50 miles apart, the Brazilian Air Force revealed. And secondly, a re-analysis of the plane's last automatic transmissions indicated many parts had malfunctioned before it plunged into the Atlantic.

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 9th, 2009 union: All Air France jets have new speed monitorsPARIS — A spokesman for a pilots' union says all Air France jets taking off now have been equipped with two new-generation speed sensors. The so-called Pitot tubes on the outside of an aircaft are under suspicion in the crash of Air France Flight 447 into the Atlantic Ocean.

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.