Air France black box search to resume on March 25

The search for the wreckage and black boxes of an Air France aircraft which crashed into the Atlantic last year killing all 228 people on board will resume on 25 March, newspaper Le Figaro said.                                            

Flight AF447, an Airbus A330, crashed into the sea between Rio de Janeiro and Paris on June 1. An initial search found pieces of wreckage and bodies but the flight recorders, which could provide clues to what happened, have not been found.                                           
Le Figaro said France's air accident investigation agency, the BEA, which is in charge of the probe, would announce on Monday that rescuers would leave Recife in Brazil for the search zone off the coast on March 25, not March 15 as planned.                            

A person taking part in the investigation said the crew of an American ship had visa problems, which delayed its departure from the United States to Brazil, and difficult weather conditions then slowed its progress, Le Figaro said.                                           
 

Once in the search area, two ships conducting the search will have a month to find the wreckage, which is probably at a depth of 4,000 m (13,000 ft), locate the black boxes and then bring them to the surface, the paper said.                                           

An Air France spokesman said he had no information on the Figaro report. The BEA could not immediately be reached for comment.                                            

Air France's insurer AXA said on Friday it would appeal a Brazilian court ruling ordering the airline to pay $1.16 million in compensation to the family of a victim, as the decision had been made outside a committee set up to decide on compensation.