The large number of fractures observed during autopsies performed so far, and the relatively large pieces of wreckage recovered, are consistent with a mid air breakup of Flight 447 Airbus 330. Photo Credit: Airbus IndustriesJune 17, 2009, (Sawf News) - The large number of fractures observed during autopsies performed so far, and the relatively large pieces of wreckage recovered, are consistent with a mid air breakup of Flight 447 Airbus 330.
"Typically, if you see intact bodies and multiple fractures — arm, leg, hip fractures — it's a good indicator of a midflight break up," said Frank Ciacco, a former forensic expert at the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. "Especially if you're seeing large pieces of aircraft as well."
A total of 50 bodies have been recovered so far. An official from Brazilian medical examiners' office told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that fractures were observed on an undisclosed number of bodies during autopsies.
According to Brazil's O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, some crash victims were found with little or no clothing, and had no signs of burns.
That lack of clothing could be significant, said Jack Casey, an aviation safety consultant in Washington, D.C., who is a former accident investigator.
"In an in-air break up like we are supposing here, the clothes are just torn away," Casey told the AP.
"Getting ejected into that kind of windstream is like hitting a brick wall — even if they stay in their seats, it is a crushing effect," Casey adds. "Most of them were long dead before they hit the water would be my guess."
If Flight 447 had crashed into the ocean intact, the aircraft wreckage would have comprised smaller pieces and bodies would not have been intact, as was observed in the 1999 crash of an Egypt Air jetliner that hit the Atlantic Ocean after taking off from New York.
"When you've had impact in the water, there is a lot more fragmentation of the bodies. They hit the water with a higher force," says Casey.
Without an in-depth analysis of the data within the black boxes, which are yet to be located, the exact sequence of events that led to the catastrophic crash may never be determined but there is increasing evidence that the failure of air speed sensors due to icing triggered the crash.
Many of the automated failure messages, though not all, transmitted by the aircraft minutes before the crash are linked to conflicting air speed readings from the multiple sensors.
The US Navy is assisting French authorities in the search for the black boxes (Data and cockpit voice recorders) in some of the deepest areas of the Atlantic Ocean.
The black boxes are programmed to transmit a homing signal that can be detected up to 2 km away, but the signal will last for just another two weeks.
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