MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nuclear sub joins Flight 447 search; Iberia tailing flight sheds some light

An Iberia plane, flying ten minutes behind AF 447 veered 60 km to avoid the storm

While France announced Friday it was sending a nuclear submarine to help find the flight data recorders of the Air France plane, which this week disappeared over the Atlantic, a press report in the Spanish press involving an Iberia plane on the same route but flying ten minutes behind could shed light into what really happened.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that debris salvaged from the sea was not from the Airbus jet that went missing on Monday.

Airbus has reissued guidelines to pilots after experts said the plane may have had false speed measurements. A spokesman for the company said that a notice had been sent reminding Airbus crews worldwide what to do when speed indicators give conflicting read-outs.

Spokesman Justin Dubon said the readings meant that “the air speed of the aircraft was unclear”. He said that in such circumstances, flight crews should - if necessary - level off the plane and start troubleshooting procedures as detailed in operating manuals.

In Madrid, the daily ABC published that Iberia flight 6024 took off from Rio seven minutes behind the fatidic 447 of Air France, travelling on the same route, but on approaching a heavy storm area moved 60 kilometres to avoid the turbulence.

According to ABC, the crews of the Spanish and French airlines met at the Rio do Janeiro and chatted before leaving for Madrid and Paris.

The Spanish crew also reported they heard the desperate calls from the Brazilian air controllers trying to contact the French plane, and so did they, but with no replies. The Iberia plane did not receive any emergency calls either.

Meteorologists say Flight 447 entered an unusual storm with 160km/h updrafts that sucked water up from the ocean. As the moisture reached the plane's high altitude it quickly froze in -40C temperatures. The updrafts would also have created dangerous turbulence, they say.

The Airbus A330 jet vanished over the Atlantic en-route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on Monday with 228 people on board.

A small group of relatives of those on board the plane has gone to the north-eastern Brazilian city of Recife where the rescue operation is based. They are to be given a chance to tour the facility and to ask questions.

As the search continued on Friday, it was revealed that a wooden pallet and a fuel slick in the vicinity of the plane's last known position were not from the jet.

Brazilian air force official Brig Ramon Borges Cardoso contradicted earlier reports, saying “no material from the plane has been recovered”.

The slick was most likely from a passing ship, he said.

Navy ships are reported to be scouring the ocean, about 1.100km north-east of Brazil's coast, in an effort to locate other debris spotted from the air on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In addition to the nuclear submarine, a French ship equipped with two deep-sea research mini-submarines is on its way to the area.

The mini-submarines will be looking for the plane's flight data recorders, which are believed to be sitting on the ocean floor up to 6.000 metres underwater.

Three more Brazilian boats are expected to arrive in the area in the next few days.

In another development on Friday, the Paris prosecutor's office opened a manslaughter investigation into the air crash. It is a routine step taken by authorities in connection with the deaths of French citizens overseas.