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PARIS: French investigators say Airbus voice and instrument recordings tell differing stories
Families of the men who died when an Air New Zealand Airbus crashed into the Mediterranean arrived in Perpignan yesterday as a judicial official shed light on a difficulty in investigating the disaster.
Perpignan prosecutor Jean-Pierre Dreno, who is heading an inquiry into the November 27 crash, told the Herald that unravelling the cause was proving difficult, as data extracted from the two flight recorders had turned out to be "contradictory".
"The difficulty lies [in a contradiction] between the recorder which contains the aircraft parameters - the flight data recorder - and the voice recorder," he said.
"We understand that data from the recorders is contradictory and still does not explain the catastrophe."
He did not elaborate on the specifics of the problem, but said: "We are going over this again with the experts. We really don't understand what happened ... It is going to be rather difficult. It will take a few more days before we can say what kind of result can be obtained from analysing the recorders."
The two flight recorders, also known as "black boxes", are a cornerstone of the investigation into the November 27 crash.
The voice recorder registers the conversation on the flight deck, and the digital flight data recorder records 88 instrument readings, including speed, altitude and trajectory. Together, these instruments are designed to provide accident investigators with a combined picture of a plane's final moments - what the crew said and did and how the aircraft responded.
The boxes were plucked from the Mediterranean by divers but proved to have been damaged in what was clearly a severe impact. They had to be flown to their US maker, Honeywell, to have the information extracted.
Specialist accident investigator Michel Salmon, of the French Institute for Aviation Safety, said it was not unknown for the two recorders to give data that is hard to match.
"What a pilot sees in the cockpit can differ from what the data recorders are registering from the instruments," Salmon said.
Investigators at the Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses at Le Bourget near Paris are expected to issue a preliminary report into the crash by the end of the month.
The bodies of the four New Zealanders whose remains have been recovered were moved from the Forensic Research Department in Montpellier to Perpignan for the formal handover of the remains on Saturday French time and their return to New Zealand.
The four are Captain Brian Horrell, 52, from Auckland; Christchurch engineers Michael Gyles, 49, and Noel Marsh, 35; and Jeremy Cook, 58, of Wellington, an airworthiness inspector with the Civil Aviation Authority.
The body of Air New Zealand engineer Murray White, 37, from Auckland, is still missing.
Their relatives arrived in the southwestern French town yesterday, with executives from Air New Zealand.
"Seven weeks after last coming to Perpignan, the families are relieved to be bringing their loved ones home but saddened that Murray White won't be joining the others at this point in time," said Air New Zealand boss Rob Fyfe.
The families of the two Germans who were piloting the plane when it crashed will be arriving in Perpignan next Tuesday to take possession of the remains. The only public information on their identities are their first names and the initial of their surnames. Norbert K. and Theo K. were both captains for the company XL Airways and came from the Frankfurt region.
Earlier, Dreno apologised for the delay in releasing the bodies.
"We want to say how sorry we are that it has taken so long," he said. "We couldn't rush things and hand over the bodies in any conditions of uncertainty."
