New search for remains of Air France Flight 447, presser
(17 Feb 2010) SHOTLIST 1. Wide of exterior of Bureau of Accident and Inquiry (BEA) 2. Wide of Head of BEA Jean-Paul Troadec in news conference 3. Close-up of image on projector screen showing map of area where plane crashed 4. SOUNDBITE: (French) Jean-Paul Troadec, Head of Bureau of Accident and Inquiry (BEA): "What I am telling you is that we have put all of our resources into this in order to succeed and I cannot give you a number because statistically it doesn''t make any sense but very certainly it is largely greater than 50 percent." 5. Pan across news conference 6. Journalists looking at screen with photographs of special submarine and equipment to be used in search 7. Various close-ups of photographs 8. SOUNDBITE: (French) Jean-Paul Troadec, Head of Bureau of Accident and Inquiry (BEA): "Regarding the black boxes, the recorders if we find them, we should be able to use them if all goes well. In other words, the certification conditions of the black boxes concerning their resistance particularly towards the pressure and the shock etc, mean that we should be able to use these black boxes." 9. Various of journalists listening 10. SOUNDBITE: (French) Jean-Paul Troadec, Head of Bureau of Accident and Inquiry (BEA): "We could say it is one of the most complex undersea operations ever." 11. Various of news conference 12. SOUNDBITE: (French) Jean-Paul Troadec, Head of Bureau of Accident and Inquiry (BEA): "What''s obvious is that this research must be done. We cannot remain at this point of the investigation that for the moment is inconclusive and not even conclusive. We must absolutely do everything we can by surrounding ourselves with the best international specialists in the fields of oceanography, sea exploration on the one side and on the other side, by mobilising the means, we can say the most effective means in the world, in terms of undersea research, we have done the maximum." 13. Troadec on podium being photographed STORYLINE A new 10 (m) million euro (13.73 (m) million US dollar) international search for the remains of Air France Flight 447 will begin in mid-March, nearly nine months after the passenger jet crashed into the Atlantic, France''s chief air accident investigator said on Wednesday. The search plan, involving US and Norwegian ships, covers some 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometres) of sea, said Jean-Paul Troadec, chief of the BEA investigation agency. He said the approximately four-week search is the most expensive and biggest operation his agency has ever conducted and "one of the most complex undersea operations ever." Troadec said the first search efforts after the June 1 crash, which killed 228 people, had not been fruitful. He said that, since then, the investigation had stalled without further information from the crash site, including from the black box flight recorders that would provide crucial information on what went wrong. The black boxes have not been found. Troadec said he thought there was a good chance the black boxes would be found, and that the investigators should still be able to use the information they contained. The lifespan of the so-called "pingers" attached to the black boxes is only about a month, but officials say submarines and boats equipped with sonar gear can find the wreckage from the Airbus 330 even without such signals. The second and most recent search for the black boxes ended in August. Investigators have insisted that the crash was likely to have been caused by a series of failures, but say they won''t know definitively without the black boxes. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
