France’s Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses (BEA) has published an interim report on the investigation of the June 1st crash of Air France 447.
Some notable points:
- Exception is taken that it took 9 hours between Air France receiving ACARS failure messages from the doomed plane and the first rescue efforts being launched.
- Debris shows significant compression, as if the aircraft hit the water intact at very high speed, nose down.
- Analysis of the weather conditions from the time of the accident reveals nothing particularly severe for that area.
- Download the report [PDF]
