8 theSun | WEDNESDAY JUNE 3 2009

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RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian military search

planes found debris in the Atlantic Ocean yester-
day that could be wreckage of a missing Air France
flight carrying 228 people that disappeared in a
storm the previous day.
Military planes saw metallic objects and plane
seats 650km north of the islands of Fernando de
Brazil planes spot possible
debris from missing jet
Noronha off Brazil’s northern coast.
The area is near where the last contact was
made with the Airbus A330 that took off for Paris
from Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night and went
missing in storms about four hours later without
sending any distress signal.
“The plan now is to focus our efforts to collect
the debris and try to identify if they belong or not
to the Air France plane,” Brazilian Air Force Col
Jorge Amaral said at a news conference.
“We can’t really say this is part of the airplane.
The command centre needs to have at least one
piece of the debris with a serial number to confirm
that it belongs to the airplane.”
The chances of finding survivors appeared
close to nil and authorities were treating the pas-
senger list as a death toll.
If none are found, it would be the worst disaster
in Air France’s 75-year history and the deadliest
since one of the company’s supersonic Concorde
planes crashed in 2000.
Air France’s Flight 447 sent an automatic mes-
sage reporting electrical faults before it went miss-
ing, the airline said, but aviation experts said they
did not have enough information to understand
how the plane could have crashed.
Brazilian airline TAM said the crew of one
of its planes saw “bright spots” on the surface of
the ocean, perhaps caused by burning wreckage,
early on Monday. Brazil’s air force said a ship in
the area indicated it had found no signs of debris.
“All scenarios have to be envisaged. We can’t
rule out a terrorist act,” French Defence Minister
Herve Morin said.

REUTERSPIX
The flight was carrying 216 passengers of 32 na-
tionalities, including seven children and one baby.
Sixty-one were French, 58 Brazilian and 26 German.
Twelve crew members were also on board.
Senior French minister Jean-Louis Borloo said Distraught relatives and friends of passengers of Air France flight AF447 arrive at the crisis centre at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris.
it was crucial for searchers to locate the black
boxes, or flight recorders, which are programmed
to emit signals for up to 30 days.
“This is a race against the clock.”
An Air France spokesman said on Monday s is to attempt to salv
age the
US judge: Gitmo evidence
tasks for investigator
that a lightning strike could be to blame for the
disaster, but aviation experts said such strikes on
One of the most urgent
flight data recorder and
the coc
the
kpi
se
t
dev
voi ce
ices
rec
hav e
ord
son
er of Air France Flight 447
ar “pingers” that can
an
.
must be made public
Known as black boxes, the surface of the oce
planes were common and could not alone explain 00m (20,000ft) below WASHINGTON: A federal judge detainees. The documents were
operate as deep as 6,0 r tail , wh ere it is
nea rejected on Monday a US gov- filed in response to petitions by
the loss of a modern aircraft. Flight recorder located
severe crash
One element that baffled experts was the ab- more likely to survive ernment request to keep secret the detainees seeking their court-
sence of any distress messages, either human or the unclassified evidence that ordered release.
automatic, from the plane. No mayday message it says justifies the continued The ruling was a victory for
was picked up, nor were any signals received from imprisonment of more than 100 detainee lawyers and a coalition
mory Guantanamo Bay prisoners. of news organisations. They
emergency beacons that should have transmitted
Housing: Crash Survivable Me
hours
automatically. Armour plate. Unit: CSMU retains 25 US district judge Thomas argued the news media and the
tion in
“It would be very unusual to have all the com- Average depth of digital flight informa Hogan ruled the government public have a constitutional right
ssed form
munications systems fail at once,” said David of Atlantic: high quality uncompre cannot keep the documents of access to the documents.
Gleave, of Aviation Safety Investigations, an airport 3,700-5,500m Underwater Locater known as factual returns from The judge ordered the US Jus-
and air traffic control risk management consultancy Beacon: Activates public disclosure and must seek tice Department to publicly file its
based in Britain. “That would tend to indicate that automatically in water. court approval to keep specific unclassified records or show the
Pings each second on information secret. court what specific information it
something catastrophic happened.” – Reuters 37.5KHz emergency
frequency. Battery “Public interest in Guan- wants to keep secret by the end
lasts up to 90 days tanamo Bay generally and these of next month.
proceedings specifically has been Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney
unwavering,” Hogan wrote. with the American Civil Liberties
“Publicly disclosing the factual Union, hailed the ruling.
returns would enlighten the citi- “For far too long, the government
zenry and improve perceptions of has succeeded in keeping informa-
the proceedings’ fairness.” tion about Guantanamo secret and
US President Barack Obama used secrecy to cover-up illegal
had vowed to close the detention detention and abuse. The decision
Acquisition centre set up at the US Naval marks an important step towards
unit: Collects data Base in Cuba by his predecessor restoring America’s open court
from instruments, George W. Bush to hold foreign tradition that is essential to both
faces
engines and flight sur terrorism suspects after the Sept. accountability and the rule of law.”
Therm al blo ck: Thic k slab 11, 2001 attacks. But closing the The Justice Department was re-
s heat
of paraffin wax – absorb centre has proved difficult as the viewing the ruling, spokesman Dean
memory core
as it melts, protecting White House grapples with where Boyd said, adding the government
withstand
Foam insulation: Can to place the remaining prisoners. never sought to keep the informa-
C for 30 minutes
temperatures of 1,000° © GRAPHIC NEWS The sealed court documents tion sealed indefinitely but only until
raft Service, Teledyne Benthos
Sources: Lockheed Airc outlined the government’s case the completion of an appropriate
for the continued holding of the classification review. – Reuters

Traces of cocaine found in Red Bull in Hongkong

HONGKONG: Officials in
Hongkong have found traces of
cocaine in cans of Red Bull, a few
days after Taiwanese authorities
confiscated close to 18,000 cases
of the popular energy drink.
Officials at the Centre for Food
Safety said a laboratory analysis
found tiny amounts of the illegal
drug in samples of “Red Bull
Cola”, “Red Bull Sugar-free”
and “Red Bull Energy Drink”, a
spokesman said.
The drink has now been taken
off the shelves of major super-
markets, the spokesman said in a
statement issued late on Monday.
He added that the amount of co-
caine found in the drinks posed
little health danger.
Red Bull moved quickly to
deny the findings and said inde-
pendent tests on the same batch
of drinks had found no traces of
cocaine.
The Centre for Food Safety
found traces of cocaine – between
0.1 and 0.3 micrograms of the
drug per litre, the statement said.
Initially, commissioner for
narcotics Sally Wong said the
government was taking legal
advice on any possible liability
for importers and retailers.
However, after meeting Red
Bull representatives yesterday,
the government issued a state-
ment saying no prosecution was
intended, because of “the absence
of prior knowledge of the cocaine
content in the product”.
Before yesterday’s meeting, Red
Bull Asia Pacific marketing director
Daniel Beatty said the firm strongly
disputed the findings that cocaine
had been found in its product.
“It would have been absolutely
impossible for the Hongkong or
any other authorities to have found
traces of cocaine in Red Bull Energy
Drink,” he said in a statement.
Taiwan officials said on Satur-
day they had confiscated nearly
18,000 cases of Red Bull imported
from Austria after finding it con-
tained traces of the drug. – AFP