Terror Connection Unlikely In Crash

French and Brazilian recovery crews have begun to recover the bodies of passengers known to have been on Air France 447 and some airplane wreckage at a location in the South Atlantic near the spot where the plane's last known communications were transmitted. Investigators and Airbus, the manufacturer of the A330 aircraft, have also acknowledged that before the plane's disappearance, its automated control systems sent out data messages to Air France's maintenance center indicating that the plane's airspeed sensors were producing inconsistent data. 

Based on this limited information, investigators are focusing on a theory that the plane's airspeed sensor system, which includes parts known as pitot tubes, might have gotten clogged with ice as the plane flew into heavy weather, thereby producing incoherent speed data, which led either the flight's human crew or its heavily computerized control systems to make wrong decisions about speeding up or slowing down. Such misinformed decisions could have resulted in the plane charging too quickly into violent, stormy winds, leading to extreme stress on the plane's frame or, at least theoretically, to the plane flying too slowly to stay aloft.

While it hasn't been completely ruled out as a possible cause, despite the suspicious names on the flight manifest, terrorism is currently regarded by most, if not all, official investigators as an unlikely cause of the crash.

© 2009