The French version of the National Transportation Safety Board — the BEA — released preliminary findings in the crash of the Air France Airbus off the coast of Brazil last month. You’ve probably heard about it on your favorite public radio station newscast.
Here’s the full English version of the report, which says the plane did not break up in flight, but hit the ocean at a high speed belly first.
The pictures of some of the wreckage are somewhat stunning because they’re far bigger than what we usually see in plane crashes.
It seems increasingly unlikely the “black boxes” will ever be found. Without them, we may never know why this flight crashed, when so many others in similar situations have not.