Mystery deepens over Air France jet

FERNANDO DE NORONHA – Conflicting clues to the cause of the loss of an Air France jet and the 228 people on board emerged yesterday, deepening the mystery as the hunt for evidence intensified.

A Spanish pilot flying in the same area as the Rio-Paris flight when it plunged into the Atlantic spoke of an ‘intense flash’, while a Brazilian minister appeared to rule out a mid-air explosion.Meanwhile, a report in France suggested the pilots may have been flying at the ‘wrong speed’ to deal with the fierce thunderstorm that they flew into in the early hours of Monday before the airliner’s systems suddenly failed.In a brief report on its website, the newspaper Le Monde said plane maker Airbus was preparing to send a warning to the operators of the hundreds of A330 jets in the world with new advice on flying in storms.Airbus refused to comment on the report, which cited a ‘source close to the crash inquiry’ as saying that AF 447 had been flying at the ‘wrong’ speed, but a company official told AFP that it was usual to update airlines.’Each time there’s an accident, it is imperative for the manufacturer to inform all operators of the type of aircraft concerned of any specific procedures to put in place or any checks to carry out,’ he said.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such warnings – called Accident Information Telexes – were overseen by crash investigators from France’s BEA aviation safety agency before being sent out.’If the BEA is making a recommendation so early, it’s because they know very well what happened,’ retired pilot Jean Serrat told AFP.The captain of a Spanish airliner claimed to have seen ‘an intense flash of white light’ in the area where the plane was lost, his airline Air Comet said, confirming a report in the daily El Mundo.But while the Spanish pilot’s account seemed to indicate there had been a mid-air fire or explosion.Brazil’s defence minister said the presence of a fuel slick found in the ocean by spotter planes suggested otherwise.Nelson Jobim said late on Wednesday that the 20-kilometre long kerosene trail ‘means that it is improbable that there was a fire or explosion’ because the high-octane jet fuel would have ignited.But he admitted this was ‘just a hypothesis’ and stressed that four days after the plane flew into a ferocious thunder storm midway between South America and Africa, the mystery of what happened was far from being solved.- Nampa-AFP