Atlantic crash report set for release

Brazilian navy sailors retrieve a piece of debris from the Air France plane in the Atlantic Ocean in this June 2009 file photograph.

Brazilian navy sailors retrieve a piece of debris from the Air France plane in the Atlantic Ocean in this June 2009 file photograph.

Published Jul 29, 2011

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Paris - French investigators are releasing much-awaited details about what happened in the final minutes before an Air France jet crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009.

All 228 people aboard the Airbus A330 died in the crash, the worst in Air France's history. The exact cause remains unclear.

The French air accident investigation agency BEA is releasing a report on Friday into the crash based on readings from the cockpit data and voice recorders.

The recorders were retrieved from the ocean depths in May after an exceptionally long and costly search effort.

A brief preliminary BEA report in May said that the pilots struggled to tame the aircraft as it went into an aerodynamic stall, rolled, and finally plunged 38 000 feet into the Atlantic Ocean in just 3 1/2 minutes. - Sapa-AP

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