‘Jet fuel’ slicks not from Air France flight
Debris recovered Thursday not from jet either, say Brazilian officials. Search continues.
By Andrew Downie | Correspondent 06.04.09
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL – The mystery of what happened to Air France flight 447 continues. The Brazilian Air Force said none of the debris they had recovered from the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday belonged to the missing Airbus.
Officials said a cargo pallet recovered by helicopters was not from the missing plane.
In addition, the “jet fuel” slicks spotted in the area were not jet fuel, but likely oil from a passing ship, Air Space Control Department Brig. Gen. Ramon Borges Cardoso told reporters Thursday.
“We have not recovered any parts of the aircraft so far,” General Borges Cardoso was reported as saying. “The oil that we found today was not airplane fuel; it was from a ship. It was oil, not kerosene.”
A Brazilian Air Force official confirmed Cardoso’s statement and said a detailed communiqué would be released later.
The Brazilian military has spotted other debris from the air, including what appears to be a 23-foot (seven-meter) chunk of metal, an airline seat, and several large brown and yellow pieces that Cardoso said probably came from inside the plane.
But there’s been no confirmation yet that any of that debris spotted 340 miles (550 kilometers) northeast of Brazil’s northern Fernando de Noronha islands has been recovered or identified as from the Air France flight 447, which disappeared on Sunday night with 228 passengers aboard.
Until now, Brazilian officials say, the focus was on finding survivors. But none have been spotted, and the military will now start picking up debris in an attempt to identify the plane, they say.
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2. Tom | 06.04.09
Its like…too Strange …Hope the people are still safe somewhere in an island downthere . Oh God please rescue them whereever they could be .
But its like a typical Mystery . Where is the flight gone ??
4. Tradio | 06.05.09
“Lost”, sounds like shades of a certain incident in NYC about 8 years back that cannot be spoken about anymore.
5. pp | 06.05.09
Scott, it looks like this site reported it before some more “reputable” sources:
NYTIMES:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/06/world/europe/06plane.html?ref=europe
Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-fg-brazil-crash6-2009jun06,0,140444.story
ABC: http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/International/story?id=7762916&page=1
6. Camillo | 06.05.09
I don’t trust those “reputable” sources. That’s why I recently started reading CSMonitor.
7. Jeff | 06.05.09
This is a bit off topic, but I hope someone finds the ship that dumped a three mile long load of trash and levies a big fine for polluting and wasting everyone’s time.
8. Jennie | 06.05.09
I was thinking the same thing Jeff. What happened to the plane is absolutely tragic, but is anyone else also concerned that ships apparently leave mile long trails of trash and fuel in the ocean?
9. Ron | 06.05.09
Every time a tanker off loads a shipment and heads back out to sea they flush there tanks with sea water. It’s a shame but it happens all the time
10. Jason | 06.06.09
What if:
The plane was hi-jacked, the computer hacked, and the plane is now sitting on some remote island out there hidden from view being fitted with who knows what for another attempt at an attack on the U.S.? The plane was way out of range of the nearest radar. What better cover-up for a plane to go missing than having huge thunder-heads nearby? And we all know that security isn’t perfect. And I seriously doubt that in today’s techno-savvy world that it would be very hard to hack into a planes computers and have it send out false messages, or disable the on-boards and just use a laptop to send those final “signals”.
99.95% chance I am wrong, but it’s an interesting theory.
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1. Scott | 06.04.09
Check your facts…your information is not jiving with the other stories being posted by more reputable sources.