Airbus parent EADS has "no idea" of "the convergence of causes" that led Air France Flight 447 to crash on 1 June, says chief executive Louis Gallois.
"Even if we had, it is up to the BEA to communicate that," said Gallois at EADS's pre-show media seminar. The French accident investigation agency has taken charge of the investigation. The Airbus A330-200 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it crashed in the South Atlantic. There were 228 people on board.
"Obviously Airbus is fully co-operating with the BEA. It is essential for everybody to know what happened," added Gallois.
Asked about the possibility that faulty pitot tubes played a role in the accident, Gallois responded: "We don't know if pitots are part of the accident. Nobody knows... We know that Thales has improved its pitot with a new one because we know that they had some problems with water at take off and landing - it was not a problem which was the same as the problem faced by an airplane flying at 25,000ft [7,600m]."
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Speaking at the same event, Airbus chief executive Tom Enders said that Airbus had followed its standard procedures for accidents in establishing a crisis management centre, dispatching a flight safety team to assist the investigating authorities, and issuing accident information telexes to operators. It has also dispatched employees to Brazil, and has personnel assisting the crews of ships searching for aircraft debris
"We are not in the driving seat," emphasised Enders. "We offer our support because we build the aircraft."
He expressed his hope that the digital data recorder and voice recorder would be found soon "so that one can really understand what happened". He added: "In the meantime any speculation - and we've had plenty of it, unfortunately, in the last 10 days - undermines the work that the authorities are doing [and] adds unnecessary stress to everybody concerned."
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Source: Flight Daily News
