Air accident investigators hope to find the flight recorders of the Air France jet that crashed in mid-Atlantic two years ago after undersea robots today found wreckage from the plane at a depth of almost 2½ miles (4,000 metres).
The discovery was hailed in Paris as a triumph for the French accident investigation office (BEA), which has led the hunt for the missing jet despite claims that it was like looking for a matchbox in the Swiss Alps.
The search area extends over 3,900 sq miles.
A total of 228 passengers and crew lost their lives when Air France flight AF 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, in the worst accident in the French carrier’s history. Only 49 bodies have been recovered.
Officials in Paris said that three remote environment monitoring units, known as Remus, operated by a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a Massachusetts private marine science foundation, had found wreckage including engines and wings from the Airbus A330.
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Martine Del Bono, for the BEA, said that the flight recorders had not been found, but added: “I hope to be able to announce that in the coming weeks.”
The black box recorders, if they are still usable, may provide investigators with a clear view of the cause of the crash.
Most experts believe that the pilots lost control of the jet after its speed sensors iced up, but the BEA has refused to confirm the theory in a formal report.
Mrs Del Bono said that the wreckage had been found between 3,800 metres and 4,000 metres under the surface by a team working from the Alucia, an oceanographic research expedition vessel.
Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the French Environment Minister, said: “In the past we found the tail, scattered pieces, but this time we have found a large part of the plane, surrounded by debris.’
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Jean-Baptiste Audosset, chairman of the AF447 help and solidarity association, which represents relatives of 70 victims of the crash, said that the find was “at last a bit of hope”.
Maître Alain Jakubowicz, the association’s lawyer, said: “Our determination has finally born fruit. But this goods news comes very late in the day.”
The discovery of the wreckage comes a month after Air France and Airbus were placed under formal investigation in France on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the crash.
Victims’ families say that the aircraft maker and operator knew that the speed sensors on the Airbus 330, made by Thalys, a French group, were prone to failure in severe weather. They say that the sensors should have been replaced.
Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, Air France chief executive, described the find as “very good news because it brings with it the hope that at last we will get some information on what caused this accident, which to this day remains unexplained”.
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The Remus robots, which can stay under water for 20 hours, are using sonar to scan a mountainous seabed region known as the Mid-Ocean Ridge.
When they provide data that appears to show evidence of wreckage, a high resolution camera is sent down to verify the information.