Experts probe incident for information about what caused fatal June crash
It may have been no more than an eerie coincidence, but air accident experts aren’t overlooking an incident last month in which an Air France jet plunged 5,000 feet—in the exact same spot where another airliner crashed into the Atlantic earlier this year. In June, AF447 fell out of the sky en route from Paris to Rio de Janeiro, killing all 228 people on board. Despite an extensive search, the black box has yet to be recovered, leaving many questions unanswered about what caused the fatal crash. Now, authorities are hoping that the more recent incident, involving AF445, might offer some insight. According to Air France, the flight hit turbulence four hours after taking off from Rio on Nov. 29 at 5:20 p.m. Standard procedure is to descend 300 feet, but the jet instead plunged 5,000 feet, from 33,000 feet to 28,000 feet. There were no reported injuries.