The search of AF 447’s flight recorder black box will take place for the third time according to AP.  The 30-day operation, to begin next week after search ships sail for the mid-Atlantic on Sunday, will scour an area of seabed only one-tenth that combed in the two previous attempts, Jean-Paul Troadec, chief of the BEA French investigation agency, said at a news conference in northeastern Brazil.

 

The smaller area was the result of a collaborative effort by scientists, including from the U.S.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, to reconstruct the trajectory of the Airbus 330's debris and the time the wreckage was found, giving investigators a better idea of where to look, Troadec said. The latest search will employ two ships, one of which will deploy three sonar-equipped robot submarines weighing more than 5 metric tons each to search the seabed. The other will use sonar machines dragged on cables underwater to pore over the 770-square mile (2,000-square kilometer) target area.

 

Another interesting event, shortly after the crash, Air France changed the number of the regular Rio de Janeiro-Paris flight from AF447 to AF445.

 

On 30 November 2009, Air France 445 made a mayday call due to severe turbulence around the same area and time flight 447 crashed. Because the pilots could not obtain immediate permission from air traffic controllers to descend to a less turbulent altitude, the mayday was to alert other aircraft in the vicinity that the flight had deviated from its normal flight level. This is standard contingency procedure when changing altitude without direct authorization. After 30 minutes of moderate to severe turbulence the flight continued normally. The plane landed safely in Paris 6 hours and 40 minutes after the mayday call.