Mystery of Air France plane crash
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Investigators are trying to discover what happened to Air France flight AF 447 after air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane on the 31st of May. The plane took off from Rio de Janeiro as normal and was flying through a storm over the Atlantic Ocean when the plane's computers started to send error messages to air traffic controllers in Paris. The plane sent 24 error messages in the minute before contact was lost.
Air France officials were hoping that it was a small technical problem with the plane's computers, but when the plane didn't arrive in Paris on the 1st of June they realised there was a serious problem. They knew the plane must have crashed because it didn't have enough fuel to continue flying for such a long time. Relatives of the passengers went to the airports in Paris and Rio de Janeiro when they heard the news.
Rescuers have now found parts of the plane as well as the bodies of some passengers in the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Senegal. They say there is now no chance of finding survivors, but as well as finding more bodies they need to find as much of the plane as possible so they can try to find out what caused the crash. They are also looking for the 'black box' flight recorder which records important information about the flight, including what the pilots were saying just before the crash. There were 228 passengers and crew on the flight.
Have you have finished reading the article? Now try and answer these questions:
1) When did Air France realise the plane had crashed?
(a) When it sent error messages
(b) When it didn't arrive in Paris
(c) When they found parts of the plane in the sea
2) What do the investigators need to find to know why the plane crashed?
(a) The bodies af all the passengers.
(b) All parts of the aeroplane
(c) The 'black box' flight recorder.
Here are the answers:
1) b - "They knew the plane must have crashed because it didn't have enough fuel to continue flying"
2) c - "the 'black box' flight recorder which records important information about the flight, including what the pilots were saying just before the crash"
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