Since the tragic crash of Air France flight AF447, everyone has been wondering about the real cause of the crash - was it faulty equipment, pilot error, turbulence, mixture of events, or something else? The only thing that could answer these questions are the 2 black boxes. Earlier efforts were targeted towards the ping from the boxes, but since the battery would have died by now, the search phase has changed. Now, the French accident investigation board, known by its acronym BEA, will commence Phase 2 of the search using sonar and diving equipment from a French research vessel to scan the mountainous ocean floor for any signs of wreckage and the plane's flight data recorders.

This new phase of the search, which will use a towed sonar system to scan the ocean floor, is expected to last a month.

"If we are very, very lucky, we will find [the flight data recorders]," says Martine Del Bono, a BEA spokeswoman. "Right now it's step by step in the investigation, so we are in the beginning of Phase II. After that, we'll see."

The flight data recorders, also known as black boxes, hold key information that can help explain what caused the Airbus 330-200 to plunge into Atlantic Ocean in a thunderstorm on a routine flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. All 228 people aboard are believed to have perished. Aviation analysts say it's vital to find the black boxes and as much wreckage as possible in order to understand what caused the accident – so that others can be prevented.

They also note that it's rare for black boxes not to be recovered, even in ocean crashes. That's in part because most accidents occur either on landing or take off, so the wreckage is usually in relatively shallow water. In this case, investigators must search more than one hundred miles, and the remaining wreckage is believed to be two to three miles underwater.

"This represents some of the most severe challenges that investigators have to deal with in an underwater recovery, given there's a very large search area which is very deep with a very rugged terrain," says Frank Hilldrup, an accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington.

Source: www.csmonitor.com

As everyone else, I am very eager to know what really happened with the aircraft. I hope they find them soon and put to rest all speculations about the crash.