European air safety agency orders Airbus part checked

A small part that tells computers on some highly-automated Airbus aircraft how fast the plane is flying became a concern again Wednesday. European aviation authorities ordered airlines to check “pitot tubes” that have come under suspicion since the crash of Air France Flight 447 in the Atlantic Ocean in June

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Yemenia plane data recorder ‘possibly found’

The flight data recorders from a Yemenia Airways crash were possibly located off Comoros on Wednesday, a day after a jetliner with 153 people aboard went down in the Indian Ocean, a French official said. “It seems like the ‘black boxes’ have been localized, but are not very accessible, according to information we obtained this morning.

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Yemeni plane crashes with 154 aboard

A Yemeni jetliner with more than 150 people aboard has crashed in the Indian Ocean off the island nation of Comoros, aviation officials in Yemen said Tuesday. The jet was en route to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, from Yemen’s capital Sanaa when it crashed about an hour before reaching its destination, officials from the national airline Yemenia said

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Air France plane wreckage unlikely to be recovered

Authorities are most unlikely to recover all parts of the Air France plane that went down June 1 in the Atlantic Ocean with 228 people aboard, an official with France’s air accident investigation board said Wednesday. “It’s virtually certain that the entire aircraft will not be recovered. All the bodies which are or will be found will be recovered, but I do not know how many.

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Flight 447 mystery likely to cast shadow over Paris Air Show

The world’s premier air show takes place in Paris next week, with the recent loss of Air France flight 447 over the Atlantic Ocean likely to cast a shadow over the event. The annual Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary, gives the air transport industry the chance to promote the latest innovations in aerospace technology and attract buyers for both commercial and military aircraft. Manufacturing giants Boeing and Airbus are two of the most high-profile organizations at the show as a result of their stranglehold over the commercial airliner market

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Officer survives New Mexico crash; pilot’s fate unknown

A New Mexico police officer was rescued Wednesday after surviving a helicopter crash in the snowy Santa Fe National Forest, but the fate of the pilot remained unknown. The simple fact is that the blizzard of airworthiness directives, company memos, weather reports, technical specifications and diverse other documents that have surfaced since last week constitute entirely circumstantial evidence. Aviation history is replete with accidents with causes utterly unrelated to what first seemed the obvious explanation

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Air France crash: What do we know?

In one way we know a huge amount about the loss of Air France flight 447 — much more than is usual so soon after an accident. But in another, we know nothing at all. The simple fact is that the blizzard of airworthiness directives, company memos, weather reports, technical specifications and diverse other documents that have surfaced since last week constitute entirely circumstantial evidence

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