Air France report detector call

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An interim report into June's fatal Air France crash has called for stricter certification standards for air-speed detectors on aircraft.

Faulty detectors are believed to have played a part in the mid-Atlantic accident that killed 228 people.

The French Accident Investigation Bureau still does not know what caused the crash, but its attention is clearly focused on the detectors.

Known as Pitot tubes, they send speed information to an aircraft's computers.

In its last minutes, the Airbus 330 was receiving varying and inconsistent readings about its airspeed, and it is probable this was a factor behind the crash.

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The bureau's interim report says that not enough is known about the action of ice in cloud formations at high altitudes, so existing testing criteria for the speed detectors are probably insufficient.

It also calls for new international rules to protect flight data and help in the recovery of flight recorders, which in the case of the Air France airbus have still not been found.

The crash was Air France's worst disaster in its 75-year history. The flight disappeared from radar screens on 1 June, during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

The report said oxygen masks on the plane did not drop, the air inside did not depressurise, and that life vests were still in their wrappers, possibly suggesting that passengers had little or no warning of the impending crash.

It also said the aircraft was probably in one piece upon impact.