Two a penny

.New evidence has emerged that shows faulty equipment may have caused the Air France crash off the Brazilian coast this year.
The plane took off from Rio de Janeiro bound for Paris, but flew into a thunderstorm three hours later and then plunged into the Atlantic – 228 passengers and crew died.
Three months after Air France flight 447 went down in the Atlantic, relatives of the 228 victims are still searching for answers.
The plane’s manufacturer Airbus has now told the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program that the onboard weather radar could not detect ice at high altitudes.
“The French families are waiting for explanations about why this tragedy happened, technical explanations and acknowledgements of responsibility from all the companies involved in this crash,” he said.
Christopher Guillot-Noel lost his brother.
Safety expert Captain John Mahon has been independently investigating the crash for a British law firm representing the families.
He is among a group of French families who hope to sue the airline and the plane’s manufacturer Airbus.
“Some of the messages that were transmitted by the aircraft would seem to suggest that faulty pitot tubes or speed sensors were instrumental in this accident,” he said.
He says the disaster could have been prevented.
It is believed they iced-over at high altitudes, sending the wrong information about the flight speed to the pilots.
Before the plane crashed, a routine maintenance message from the plane sent back to France reported the pitots or sensors were not working.
After the crash, Air France pilots threatened to go on strike if the faulty pitots or air speed sensors were not replaced.
Both Air France and Airbus manuals offered advice on how to deal with the faulty sensors, but the pilots union says the advice was contradictory. Now the planes manufacturer Airbus says the onboard weather radar was also not working.
– Equipment fault –
Air France replaced the sensors after the crash.
The vice-president of the flight test division at Airbus, Fernando Alonso, said the Airbus onboard radar could not see ice particles.
This contributed to the series of confusing or false data sent to the pilot..
“You have weather radar which is a very. it’s an equipment which is fitted on every single aeroplane,” he said..”
Rhe black boxes and voice recorders still have not been recovered, making it hard to get an accurate picture of what went wrong.
“I believe the ice could not be detected.
“It’s highly desirable that data is streamed live from the aircraft to the maintenance base,” he said.
“It’s highly desirable that data is streamed live from the aircraft to the maintenance base,” he said.
“It is absurd that air safety depends on black boxes which sometimes cannot be recovered, or if they are recovered then the data cannot be properly transcribed because the boxes are damaged.”
The official investigation into the crash of Air France flight 447 continues.

Watch Foreign Correspondent tonight at 8:00pm (AEDT) on ABC 1.