Do you know at who's request or invitation?

USMCFLYR

 

Unfortunately no, I don't have any contacts close enough on the "inside" and the news reports I've seen have been woefully inadequate. I'd guess there are a lot of agreements re: USA involvement in the finding of the wreck that translate into analysis (e.g. we won't help unless you let us verify analysis of the data.) There is widespread suspicion of the independence of analysis as somebody noted above, so I'd bet they are trying to at least appear transparent to avoid further scandal.

Interestingly, Le Figaro reports already that Airbus is "held harmless" (for those that can read French)

Le Figaro - Flash Actu : INFO LE FIGARO - AF 447 : Airbus mis hors de cause par les boites noires

Likely confirmation of prevailing theory of pitots iced -> reversion to alternate / ?direct law -> crew a bit slow to get to the standard pitch&throttle settings -> stalled as they were already flying near Q-corner -> could not recover from significant upset while faced with innumerable alarms and faults. If so, there will be many arguments regarding "blame" on the pilots and "culpability" of the company.

The company is clearly suffering from bad image as documents such as this float around:

Air Caraibes Airbus A330 memo

(warns about pitot icing incident clusters) which occurred relatively frequently. Most of the guys avoided stalling, likely AF447 didn't. I hope this does not spiral into a terrible finger-pointing endeavor (e.g. look, these other people made it just fine with iced pitots) and instead leads to some significant safety, training, corporate, and cultural improvements.

 

The NTSB web site says they are participating as the US is the state of manufacture of the GE engines.

 

Nice -- good excuse for having an American part in every flying machine. I hope the culture is good and there is true cooperation; there have been some very successful partnerships in the past between NTSB and foreign investigators (e.g. Birgenair 301, also highly publicized, also ultimately due to blocked pitots...)

 

I wonder to what extent that reasoning could be used on other non-US accidents. Even if the AF447 aircraft had Rolls-Royce engines, the placard on the outside of the FDR chassis clearly says "Honeywell". Could the NTSB participate in an accident investigation for the sole reason of being the state of manufacture of the very same recorders that potentially hold the answers to solving the cause of an accident?

 

I think you have to be invited to the investigation.

 

Probably not. The concept of "Party to the Investigation" is generally considered to be someone with a major stake in the outcome...ie operator, government of registration, government of the crash site, government of manufacture, airframe mfg, and engine mfg. Since thousands of companies contribute to the construction of an airplane there would not be enough space in the room to include them all so they start with engine and airframe.

But once they determine that a certain sub-component is under suspicion, that mfg. should be invited to the party.

The US NTSB often seems to be invited in an advisory capacity because they have the highest levels of expertise and experience in the world, and better forensic technology than many countries.

 

Pilot of doomed Air France jet 'not in cockpit' during critical phase: report - NYPOST.com

LE BOURGET, France -- The pilot of the doomed Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 people on board was not in the cockpit when the first warning signals sounded, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported Monday.

According to sources cited by the news magazine, France's BEA civil aviation safety bureau concluded that pilot Marc Dubois was not on the flight deck when the emergency first began.

On flight recordings recovered from the Airbus jet, which crashed on June 1, 2009, while heading from France to Brazil, the 58-year-old can be heard rushing back to the pilot's seat.

The source added, "He called instructions to the two co-pilots on how to save the aircraft."

The recordings also show that there was only four minutes from those first warning alerts from the aircraft's monitoring equipment to the plane smashing into the ocean.

But according to the report, pilot error alone was not solely to blame for the crash, with serious questions raised over how automatic systems on the aircraft reacted to the emergency.

The recorders show the flight team worked hard -- successfully at first -- to avoid the serious storm front which froze the speed sensors and left them unable to gauge how fast they were going, leading to a "deep stall."

The report says one theory is that the plane's computers, and not the pilots, reacted incorrectly to the stall, sealing the plane's fate.

Airbus has refused to comment on the plane's flight characteristics while the investigation is ongoing.

Information was downloaded over the weekend from the plane's black boxes, which were recovered after spending nearly two years submerged in more than 12,000 feet (3,650 meters) of water.

 

Are we still working on where the plane left from and the destination
MEDIA

USMCFLYR

 

Yeah, I saw that too. It kind of taints the quality of information in the rest of the story. That, and it's the New York Post!

ABC also has a tidbit, again rehashed from the German report.

Air France 447: Air Speed Sensors Eyed in Crash - ABC News