Autopsies Suggest that Air France Plane Broke Up in Sky

Autopsies that have been performed on the bodies that have been recovered from the wreckage of Air France flight 447 suggest to investigators that the plane broke up in the air. The autopsies have revealed fractures in the legs, hips, and arms.

The top French investigator has expressed optimism about figuring out what caused the Airbus A330-200 to crash into the Atlantic. He also called the conditions “one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation” because of the location and the deep waters.

Paul-Louis Arslanian, who is charge of the French air accident investigation agency BEA, told a news conference outside of Paris that they are beginning to form “an image that is progressively less fuzzy”.

“We are in a situation that is a bit more favorable than the first days,” Arslanian said. “We can say there is a little less uncertainty, so there is a little more optimism. … (but) it is premature for the time being to say what happened.”

A spokesperson for Brazilian medical examiners, who wanted to remain anonymous due to department rules, told the Associated Press that fractures were found in autopsies on an undisclosed number out of the 50 bodies that were recovered.

Frank Ciacco, a former forensic expert at the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said that typically, intact bodies with multiple fractures is a good indicator of a mid flight break up, especially if you’re seeing large pieces of aircraft as well.

The news of the autopsie results were first reported on Wednesday by Brazil’s O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper. The paper also reported that some of the victims were found with little or no clothing, and had no signs of burns.

Jack Casey, and aviation safety consultant in Washington D.C. said that the lack of clothing could be significant. He said “In an in-air break up like we are supposing here, the clothes are just torn away”. Casey also agreed that multiple fractures were consistent with a midair breakup of the plane, which was cruising at an altitude of 34,500 feet when it went down.

“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 said. “Most of them were long dead before they hit the water would be my guess.”

“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.” , said Cassie, unlike when a plane crashes into water mostly intact. When a planes crashes into the water mostly intact, debris and bodies are generally broken into small pieces.

For now, the search continues for the flight data and voice recorders, the one missing piece that can give investigators a solid idea as to what happened on that chilling night. At the moment, French-charted ships are actively searching an area with a radius of 50 miles (80 kilometers), all while pulling underwater listening devices that are attached to 19,700 feet (6,800 meters) of cable.

The black boxes are designed to send out an electronic tapping sound that can be heard up to 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) away. The locator beacons on the black box will begin to fade after 30 days, which means that there’s only 2 weeks left to find the device.