Flight 447 investigators accused of delaying search
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 10:26 AM ET
The Associated Press
Families of victims of crashed Rio-Paris Flight 447 have accused French investigators of delaying a new search for wreckage.
The families met Thursday in Paris with French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau, to ask about timing and financing for renewed search efforts for the Air France plane that crashed June 1 in the Atlantic. All 228 people aboard were killed.
Bussereau told the families the third phase of the search is now scheduled to resume at the end of February, according to Robert Soulas, who lost his daughter and son-in-law in the accident and is part of an association of victims' loved ones.
Investigators initially said the search could resume by the end of 2009, then said it would be January.
The first two search operations after the crash turned up 50 bodies and about 1,000 pieces of wreckage — but not the black box flight recorders that could give clues as to what made it plunge into the sea during thunderstorms at night. The boxes are believed to be somewhere on the ocean floor at extreme depths.
Bussereau said the next search effort would cost tens of millions of euros and be funded jointly by Air France, Airbus and the French government, according to those who attended the meeting.
Bussereau rejected a request to have an outside observer attend meetings of the French accident investigation agency related to the search.
