AF447 FDR found & on the way back to Paris
 

This tragedy has touched many, not just those who lost loved ones but anyone with even the remotest interest in aviation.

Whether the time underwater has done any significant damage remains to be seen, but hopefully it will reveal its secrets once and for all and bring much needed closure to the investigators, Air France and, most importantly, the families left behind...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...om-seabed.html

I flew with Air France on their AF418 service from CDG to EZE overnight on March 28/9 this year, and we passed over some hefty looking thunderstorms just north of Fortaleza. Made for some spectacular sights out of the window beside me - though unfortunately I didn't have the camera available at the time. About 10 days later I was aboard a cruise ship sailing through the area going north from Fortaleza, I frequently stood at the stern rail looking out to sea and just thinking about those who had been lost that night...

Thankfully accidents like AF447 don't happen very often, but when they do...and especially when there is so much mystery surrounding why it happened...you cannot help but think about those who didn't make it home, and those still waiting at home, waiting for word, waiting to find out 'why?'.

How unusual is it that the recorder wasn't found 'as installed', but was detached, not only from its location, but also split from its 'controller'?

Tbh..after 2 years and at the depth it was on the seabed, its close to a miracle that they found the plane wreckage, let alone the business end of the FDR. Think very small needle in very large haystack.

FDR's have been known to split like this before, IIRC the midair collision tween the Legacy & GOL B737 over Brazil in 2006, the FDR from the B737 split and took a short time longer to find than the 'body' of the box.

Voice recorder recovered.
 

With the recovery of the 52nd body...51 of them recovered from the surface of the sea in the weeks following the crash...I cannot help but wonder what the families must be going through. The latest body was skeletal, still strapped into its seat after 2 years....the authorities are hoping that they can obtain enough DNA to identify the remains and return them to their family...

Tbh, I can think of nothing more horrific than finding that body and having the grim task of discovering who they were & breaking it to that person's family.....

Not sure if the searchers should look for more remains or indeed recover them, part of me is thinking that maybe it would be better to leave them where they lay, in their grave and just recover wreckage.....but the other part of me feels that the families need their loved ones home, to give them a burial with dignity, to give them finality that so far has eluded them......

It's a hard decision that thankfully I do not have to make....

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...-wreckage.html

I agree with your sentiments, Ally, however, if they are to recover the fuselage then they will have to recover the bodies.

I guess that now they have the recorders, they might not need to recover much more wreckage to discover the real reason for this tragedy.

The trouble is that now they have found and recovered a body, will the families be able to let the searchers leave the rest down there, or will they request the recovery of as many as possible....

In some respects it is a shame that the discovery & subsequent recovery of the latest body hit the headlines. Had it not done so, maybe the whole thought of body recovery could have been left as 'impossible', thus leaving those poor souls where they are. Like Titanic and all tragedies invloving the sea...regardless of type of vessel or plane....the area where they end up should always be treated as a grave, with dignity & respect...untouched.