DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS: Boeing Delivers Air France's 60th 777 Passenger Jetliner

Defense News: DTN News - AIRLINES NEWS: Boeing Delivers Air France's 60th 777 Passenger Jetliner
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Boeing
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada / EVERETT, Wash - April 4, 2012: Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Air France are celebrating the delivery of Air France's 60th Boeing 777 passenger jetliner. The airplane, a 777-300ER (Extended Range) model, landed in Paris this morning.

Air France's newest 777-300ER seats 468 passengers in a three-class configuration. The brand-new cabin includes 14 business class lie-flat seat beds measuring over 78.74 inches (2 m) in length, plus an in-seat entertainment system with 15-inch (38 cm) wide screens in 16:9 format. It also features 32 "Alize" new premium economy fixed-shell seats offering 40 percent additional space compared with seats in economy class.

Air France, a member of Sky Team, will operate this 777-300ER between Paris and the French Overseas Departments in the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean regions, including Fort de France, Pointe a Pitre and St-Denis de la Reunion.

By summer 2012, Air France will operate a total of 62 777 passenger jetliners and two 777 Freighters.

The 777-300ER is 19 percent lighter than its closest competitor, greatly reducing its fuel requirement. It produces 22 percent less carbon dioxide per seat and costs 20 percent less to operate per seat.

Last year was the best year on record for 777 sales with 200 orders from 24 customers, topping the previous record of 154 set in 2005. Production is at an all-time high for the program and a 20 percent rate increase begins this fall, increasing from seven to 8.3 airplanes per month. The program will begin building 100 airplanes per year beginning in 2013.   

To date, Boeing has recorded orders for 1,367 777s to 64 customers around the globe. 

Contact:

Antoine Balas
Boeing Communications, France
+33 1 70 37 07 07
antoine.balas@boeing.com

Debbie Heathers
777 Communications
+1 206 579 5159
debbie.heathers@boeing.com.

Photo and caption are available here: http://boeing.mediaroom.com

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Boeing
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France extends search for Air France black box

PARIS, July 3 (Reuters) - Investigators have extended the search for the flight recorders of an Air France (AIRF.PA) plane that crashed into the Atlantic last month and still hope to find them, France's transport minister said on Friday.
Flight AF 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed on June 1, killing all 228 people on board, but investigators have so far failed to pick up any signals emitted by the "black box" recorders. The signals are sent out for at least 30 days. "We could stop around ... July 10, but we won't. If we don't find them with the classic means, we will continue through submarine exploration," Transport Minister Dominique Busseareau told French radio.
He said the chances of finding the black boxes were fairly weak, but they would nevertheless try.
French investigators said on Thursday the plane hit the water intact and at high speed, but was missing for six hours before an emergency was declared.
Evidence from wreckage indicates the plane was broken apart by impact with the water, which it struck facing forwards. (Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Sophie Hares)

Air France body search called off

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 27 (UPI) -- It is unlikely more bodies will be found from the crash of Air France Flight 447, so further searching has been called off, Brazilian officials said.
The country's military announced late Friday it has suspended searches in the Atlantic Ocean where wreckage of from Flight 447 was spotted last week, CNN reported.
Military investigators say they have found 51 of the doomed flight's 228 passengers and have recovered more than 600 parts and components of the aircraft. CNN reported the bodies were given to Brazilian authorities to be identified, while debris from the airplane has been handed over to French aviation officials.
The U.S. broadcaster quoted Brazilian military officials saying ships will stay in the area in a bid to discover the plane's missing flight data recorders.

UPDATE 1-Air France "black box" signals located - report

PARIS, June 23 (Reuters) - Signals from the flight data recorders of the Air France airliner that crashed into the Atlantic killing all 228 people on board have been located, Le Monde newspaper said on its website on Tuesday.
An Air France spokeswoman said she could not confirm the report. The Transport Ministry and the air accident investigation office could not be reached immediately for comment.
Le Monde said French naval vessels had picked up a weak signal from the flight recorders and that a mini submarine had been dispatched on Monday to try and find the "black boxes" on the bottom of the rugged ocean floor.
The "black boxes" may contain vital information that could help explain what happened when the Airbus A330 aircraft crashed into the sea en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1.
Locator beacons, known as "pingers", on the flight recorders send an electronic impulse every second for at least 30 days. The signal can be heard up to 2 km (1.2 miles) away.
French vessels involved in the search operation include a nuclear submarine with advanced sonar equipment and a research ship equipped with mini submarines.
The remote location in the Atlantic as well as the depth and surface of the ocean floor have made the search especially difficult and the wreckage could lie anywhere between a depth of 1 km (0.6 miles) and 4 km (2.5 miles).
(Writing by James Mackenzie, Editing by Ralph Gowling)

Air France to compensate crash victims' families

PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) - Air France will compensate the families of the victims of a June 1 crash in which 228 people died, the company's chief executive said on Friday.
Flight AF 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic after flying into stormy weather. The causes of the crash are not known. Brazilian and French ships are still searching the ocean for debris and bodies.
"For now we are going to concentrate on the first advance that will be paid for each victim, approximately 17,500 euros ($24,420)," Air France (AIRF.PA) CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said on RTL radio.
"The lawyers of our insurers in every country are talking to the victims' families to try and organise this advance payment," he said.
Gourgeon presented the payments as a compassionate gesture from the airline, not an admission of liability.
Passengers from 32 nationalities died in the crash of the Airbus 330. Among them were 61 French people and 58 Brazilians.
Asked how the probe into the causes of the disaster was going, Gourgeon echoed words of caution from French investigators who said this week they were getting closer to understanding what happened but had no certainties yet.
The investigators said it was not possible at this stage to know whether unreliable speed readings from the aircraft's sensors had contributed to the crash.
The aircraft's flight data recorders or "black boxes" have not been found. Gourgeon said he had not lost hope that they would be located. (Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Estelle Shirbon; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

AIRSHOW-Air France crash sparks black box debate

PARIS, June 18 (Reuters) - While search teams scour the Atlantic ocean for the black boxes of Air France flight AF447 before their signals die out, aviation experts are considering satellite data streaming to collect vital flight data in future.
An airliner's black box -- which is made up of a flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder -- is designed to withstand a crash and emit a signal for about 30 days afterwards. If it is not found by then, the data is unlikely to be recovered.
Many military aircraft already use data streaming, sending flight information real-time via satellite to ground stations.
But the massive bandwidth and sophisticated infrastructure needed to manage and process data from tens of thousands of commercial flights per day could make it prohibitively expensive.
"There have been studies on this for years. There are arguments both for and against, and also there are costs," Paul-Louis Arslanian, France's chief air disaster investigator said, after reporting that the search was progressing, but hampered by difficult search conditions.
"Data streaming is currently technologically possible, but technologically impractical," Dan Elwell, Vice President Civil Aviation of the U.S.-based Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) industry group, told Reuters at the Paris Air Show.
"There are opportunities there to improve the data stream and how we get it on and off the aircraft," said Bob Smith, Vice President for Advanced Technology at Honeywell, which made the black box that was on the Air France aircraft.
Bruce Coffey, President of the Aviation Recorders division of L-3 Communications -- the world's largest supplier of crash-survivable recording units -- told Reuters the use of data streaming in conjunction with traditional recording units could provide a "belt and suspenders" approach.
However, only one of L-3's black boxes has ever been lost after a crash -- from the American Airlines flight that ploughed into the World Trade Center on September 11 2001.
CRUCIAL INFORMATION
Richard Hayden, President of Canada's Aeromechanical Services Ltd, thinks he has an answer to the question of cost.
The company's automated flight information recording system compresses data, allowing it to send 10 times more from an aircraft in the same bandwidth than with a standard satellite communication, dramatically cutting the cost to the operator.
Hayden said the system can be programmed to start transmitting data non-stop as soon as there's a problem on board, and that this could have sent crucial information about the June 1 Air France crash that killed all 228 people on board.
"Today we have a situation where there's a possibility, if not a probability, that the FDR won't be recovered. All we have left is a very small set of messages," Hayden said, referring to the automated maintenance messages the A330-200 sent in its final moments, charting problems in all onboard systems.
Data streaming may be able to supplement black boxes, but not replace them, L-3's Coffey said. "If you're not able to recover the black boxes, there are going to be a lot of questions that remain unanswered, that should be answered."
But industry specialists want guarantees that the highly sensitive data -- in particular the cockpit conversations -- will be properly protected, and pilots' privacy preserved.
"There is a huge sensitivity among pilots at the thought of every utterance being recorded and transmitted to some faraway place," said AIA's Elwell.

UPDATE 2-No French access to Brazil plane crash autopsies

PARIS, June 17 (Reuters) - France's chief air disaster investigator said on Wednesday he was unhappy that a French pathologist had not been allowed to take part in autopsies in Brazil of bodies recovered after an Air France (AIRF.PA) plane crash.
Brazilian and French ships are still searching for wreckage and bodies from the plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, killing all 228 people on board.
Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the BEA agency in charge of investigating the crash, cautioned against speculation about the causes but said investigators were getting a little closer to understanding what had happened.
"We are getting a little closer to our goal but don't ask me what the percentage of hope is," Arslanian told a news conference, stressing the conditions in a remote area of ocean were among the most challenging in an air crash investigation.
He said a French pathologist sent to Brazil had not been authorised to take part in the autopsies of recovered bodies, and France had not had access to the Brazilian autopsy results.
During his televised news conference he declined to say more on the subject, but afterwards he was pressed by reporters to say if he was dissatisfied with the lack of access given to the French doctor.
"I am not happy. Eventually, I hope I'll have an explanation. For the time being it is a fact and nothing more. Please don't try to create problems between France and Brazil," he said.
PATIENCE
Almost equal numbers of French and Brazilian passengers died in the crash of the Airbus A330 (EAD.PA), and both countries have been keen to show they are doing their utmost to recover bodies and understand the causes of the disaster.
Arslanian urged the public to show "a lot of patience" and to stick to known facts rather than engage in speculation.
The investigation agency has so far said data transmitted from the plane before it crashed indicated unreliable speed readings from the aircraft's sensors, but that it was too early to say whether this contributed to the accident.
In order to establish the causes of the crash, the worst in Air France's history, search teams must recover the plane's flight data recorders or "black boxes".
But the seabed where the plane is thought to have crashed is mountainous, meaning the wreckage could be lying at a depth of anything between 1 km (0.6 miles) and 4 km, investigators say.
The "pinger" locator beacons on the flight recorders send an electronic impulse every second for at least 30 days. The signal can be heard up to 2 km away.
"The goal is to understand what happened and for that we need tools and these tools must be facts. The recorders are recorders of facts. If we had them we would have more facts at our disposal," Arslanian said. (Writing by Francois Murphy and Estelle Shirbon)

UPDATE 1-No new clues on causes of Air France crash

PARIS, June 17 (Reuters) - French investigators have no further clues on what caused the crash of an Air France (AIRF.PA) jetliner in the Atlantic two weeks ago, the head of France's investigation agency said on Wednesday.
More information might be available in the coming days, Paul-Louis Arslanian told reporters, urging the public to show "a lot of patience" while the search for wreckage and bodies continued in the Atlantic Ocean.
He was speaking at a news conference on the search efforts and what investigators called "unfavourable conditions" in the remote area of ocean where the Airbus (EAD.PA) A330 crashed en route from Brazil to Paris on June 1.
The investigation agency has so far said data transmitted from the plane before it crashed indicated unreliable speed readings from the aircraft's sensors, but that it was too early to say whether this contributed to the accident.
All 228 people on board the plane died in the crash, making it the worst disaster in the history of Air France. (Reporting by Tim Hepher; editing by Crispian Balmer)