12-mile oil slick located near plane crash
Published:Thursday | June 4, 2009 | 9:59 AM
A 12-mile oil slick has been detected in the Atlantic Ocean near the site where an Air France jet crashed on Monday.
Investigators say the oil slick indicates that the plane did not break up until it hit the water.
The CNN has quoted Brazil’s defence minister as saying, if this is true, it would rule out an in-flight explosion as the cause of the crash of Air France Flight 447.
However, Robert Francis, a former vice chairman of the US National Transportation Safety Board, says its very difficult to determine where a plane broke up.
Meanwhile, Brazil’s defence minister Nelson Jobim says currents have strewn the debris widely and the search area has now been expanded to 300 square miles.
The Airbus A330, carrying 228 people, went down about three hours after beginning what was to have been an 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, France.
No survivor has been found.