Dantheman62
06-02-2009, 08:36 PM
By FEDERICO ESCHER and ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writers Federico Escher And Alan Clendenning, Associated Press Writers 4 mins ago
RIO DE JANEIRO Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim says a 3-mile (5-kilometer) path of wreckage found in the Atlantic Ocean confirms that an Air France jet crashed in the sea. Jobin said Tuesday that discovery of the debris by Brazilian military pilots "confirms that the plane went down in that area" hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil (AP) Brazilian military pilots hunting Tuesday for a missing Air France jet spotted an airplane seat, an orange buoy and signs of fuel in a part of the Atlantic Ocean with depths of up to three miles.
Brazil's Navy said three commercial ships in the area were joining the search and France said it would send a ship capable of deep-water exploration. A U.S. spy plane was also diverted from drug interdiction efforts to help with the effort.
The pilots spotted two areas of floating debris but no signs of life about 35 miles (60 kilometers) apart, about 410 miles (650 kilometers) beyond the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, near Flight 447's path from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.
The discovery came about 36 hours after the jet went missing, with all 228 on board feared dead.
"The locations where the objects were found are toward the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted," Amaral said. "That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis."
Amaral said some of the debris was white and small, but did not describe it in more detail.
Sea depths vary dramatically in the areas where the rubble was spotted, ranging from slightly less than a mile to three miles (1,600 to 4,800 meters) deep, experts said. Brazilian military officials declined to release the precise coordinates.
Two of the commercial ships that joined the search late Tuesday morning reached sites where the debris was found, a Navy spokeswoman said.
"Once they come across the objects, they will be analyzed to determine if they are parts of the plane or just junk," she said.
A U.S. Navy P-3C Orion surveillance plane and 21 crew members arrived in Brazil Tuesday morning from El Salvador and was to begin overflying the zone in the afternoon, U.S. officials said in a statement. The plane can fly low over the ocean for about 12 hours at a time and has radar and sonar designed to track submarines underwater.
The French dispatched a research ship equipped with unmanned submarines to the debris site. The subs can explore depths of up to 19,600 feet (6,000 meters). The U.S. was considering contributing unmanned underwater vehicles in the search as well, according to a defense source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090602/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_plane
RIO DE JANEIRO Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim says a 3-mile (5-kilometer) path of wreckage found in the Atlantic Ocean confirms that an Air France jet crashed in the sea. Jobin said Tuesday that discovery of the debris by Brazilian military pilots "confirms that the plane went down in that area" hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil (AP) Brazilian military pilots hunting Tuesday for a missing Air France jet spotted an airplane seat, an orange buoy and signs of fuel in a part of the Atlantic Ocean with depths of up to three miles.
Brazil's Navy said three commercial ships in the area were joining the search and France said it would send a ship capable of deep-water exploration. A U.S. spy plane was also diverted from drug interdiction efforts to help with the effort.
The pilots spotted two areas of floating debris but no signs of life about 35 miles (60 kilometers) apart, about 410 miles (650 kilometers) beyond the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, near Flight 447's path from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.
The discovery came about 36 hours after the jet went missing, with all 228 on board feared dead.
"The locations where the objects were found are toward the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted," Amaral said. "That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis."
Amaral said some of the debris was white and small, but did not describe it in more detail.
Sea depths vary dramatically in the areas where the rubble was spotted, ranging from slightly less than a mile to three miles (1,600 to 4,800 meters) deep, experts said. Brazilian military officials declined to release the precise coordinates.
Two of the commercial ships that joined the search late Tuesday morning reached sites where the debris was found, a Navy spokeswoman said.
"Once they come across the objects, they will be analyzed to determine if they are parts of the plane or just junk," she said.
A U.S. Navy P-3C Orion surveillance plane and 21 crew members arrived in Brazil Tuesday morning from El Salvador and was to begin overflying the zone in the afternoon, U.S. officials said in a statement. The plane can fly low over the ocean for about 12 hours at a time and has radar and sonar designed to track submarines underwater.
The French dispatched a research ship equipped with unmanned submarines to the debris site. The subs can explore depths of up to 19,600 feet (6,000 meters). The U.S. was considering contributing unmanned underwater vehicles in the search as well, according to a defense source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090602/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/brazil_plane