MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Air France pilots’ union demand replacement of speed sensors

Brazilian navy recovered the vertical stabilizer from the tail section which is considered a key find to determine cause of the accident.

An Air France labour union of pilots called on its members to refuse to fly Airbus A330s and A340s until the airline replaces speed sensors after investigators said the equipment probably played a role in June first Flighty 447 plane crash.

The Alter union, which represents 12% of the Paris- based carrier’s pilots, wants Air France to replace at least two of the three probes on each plane, Francois Hamant, a spokesman at the labour group was quoted by the French press.

“We made this decision following our reading of the technical messages” sent automatically by the Air France A330 that went down into the Atlantic Ocean a week ago, Hamant said. “Air France communicated to pilots that it accelerated the program to replace these probes. I’m not a technical expert but it makes us fear that this is a very serious matter”.

Unreliable data from speed sensors is one of several hypotheses under consideration that may have triggered a chain of events leading to the crash of Air France Flight 447 that killed 228 people, France’s chief crash investigator said.

Brigitte Barrand, a spokeswoman at the airline, declined to comment on the union’s demands. The carrier has been changing the probes, made by Thales SA, on single-aisle Airbus A320s since late 2007 and on twin-aisle A330s and A340s since May.

Air France pilots are represented by a half-dozen unions, with the largest, SNPL-ALPA, claiming 50% of them as members. SNPL-ALPA hasn’t made any recommendation yet, a spokesman said.

Meanwhile search crews from the Brazilian navy recovered the vertical stabilizer from the tail section, Brazil's air force said Monday, which is considered a key find that could help locate its black boxes and determine why the jet crashed. Eight more bodies also were found, according to Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz.

The US Navy is sending equipment and personnel to help search for the aircraft’s flight-data recorders, known as black boxes, and two French mini-submarines are scheduled to arrive in the area by about June 12.