From the Associated Press:
The French accident investigation agency says a search in a new area of the Atlantic for the Air France plane that crashed en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris has turned up nothing.
The zone was located by analyzing signals from the plane’s black boxes, which are still unrecovered.
The investigating agency said in a statement Wednesday that nothing was found in the ocean depths.
The conclusion came just two days after the agency said the plane, which crashed June 1, 2009, could be found by Wednesday.
Investigators say they have decided to return to the original search zone, northwest of the last known airplane position — while continuing to determine the accuracy of the black box signals, which long ago died out.
The BEA issued the following press release today:
Exploration of the new search zone, which resulted from work undertaken by the French Navy, has continued at a speed that has been hampered by technical problems, which occurred during the dives carried out by the two Remus (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles).
After ensuring optimal coverage of the entire exploration zone, the BEA has decided to start searching again in the initial search zone located to the north-west of the last known airplane position. The Seabed Worker should reach the zone tonight.
However, the BEA, in collaboration with teams from the French Navy, will continue to work on the accuracy of the data communicated by the Ministry of Defense.
The BEA will give a further update on the situation with a press release on Monday 17 May 2010.
This is really getting frustrating. They should simply keep searching and not give us any high hopes. If they’re going to conduct a search operation, they should conduct the operation until the end, without issuing press releases saying that they’re pretty sure that the wreckage is going to be located in a certain area while they aren’t 100% sure.
Associated Press
BEA Press Release
