PARIS – “Black box” flight recorders should be modified to emit signals for longer, experts investigating June’s Air France disaster over the Atlantic have said.
The BBC said investigators attempting to find reasons why the flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed have been hampered by the failure to find the jet’s recorders.
Investigators said underwater beacons on recorders should emit signals for 90 days rather than 30, in a report.
All 228 on board died in the accident, the worst in the airline’s history.
The report, by France’s BEA air accident authority, said the cause of the crash was still not known.
The reliability of speed sensors on the Airbus A330 has been questioned and BEA experts have suggested that new safety standards might be needed.
“At this stage, despite the extensive analyses carried out by the BEA on the basis of the available information, it is still not possible to understand the causes and the circumstances of the accident,” the BEA report said.
A new search to find the recorders – believed to be at a depth of nearly 19,000ft feet (6,000m) – is planned for February.
