Air France, Airbus in manslaughter probe

Updated Fri Mar 18, 2011 11:29pm 

Brazilian Navy sailors retrieve the tail of Air France flight AF447 out of the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,200km north-east of Recife, Brazil, on June 8, 2009. (Reuters: Brazilian Air Force)

Air France has joined Airbus in being probed for alleged manslaughter in connection with the 2009 crash of a Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight with the loss of 228 lives.

Investigating magistrate Sylvie Zimmerman placed Air France boss Pierre-Henri Gourjon under judicial investigation for alleged manslaughter in the crash the day after doing the same to Airbus, Air France lawyers said on Friday.
The crash has been partly blamed on malfunctioning speed sensors used by Airbus, with Air France accused of not responding quickly enough to reports that they might be faulty.
The announcement came ahead of the resumption of a search for the plane's wreckage in the Atlantic using a German mini-submarine.
So far only 3 per cent of the plane and around 50 bodies have been found from the wreckage.
Airbus has said it is mystified by the move, while victims' associations have welcomed it.
"We are very satisfied with this decision because Airbus will be more careful with this aircraft," Nelson Marinho, the head of an association representing families of the victims, said in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.
"We also know that the maintenance of the planes was defective," he said.
No charges have yet been brought in the case, which had been suspended until the plane's black box flight recorders was found.
A third search of the ocean floor to try to locate the black boxes ended in failure last May.
Despite disagreeing with the probe, Airbus has said it will cooperate pending retrieval of the doomed flight's black boxes.
Flight 447 from Rio to Paris went down roughly midway between Brazil and Senegal on June 1, 2009, in the deadliest crash in Air France's history.
The crash claimed the lives of all 228 people on board, of more than 30 nationalities. Most of those killed were French, Brazilian and German.
Air France in December was ordered to pay $727,000 to relatives of a Brazilian family that died in the accident.
The airline, through its insurers, had made compensation payments to the relatives of the passengers and crew, but continues to defend itself from litigation in Brazil.

Moonageddon: Apocalypse not - By Carl Holm for ABC Science Online

Updated Fri Mar 18, 2011 8:21pm AEDT

A full moon sets over the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO: G. Gillet)

Romantics, werewolves and other moon-gazers are in for a treat this weekend as they witness the biggest full moon seen in nearly 20 years.

But experts are discounting predictions of earthquakes associated with the event.
The moon's orbit is elliptical, and as it follows its path one side of the ellipse, known as perigee, passes about 50,000 kilometres closer than the on the other side - apogee.
A perigee full moon appears around 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than an apogee full moon.
Geoffrey Wyatt from the Sydney Observatory says the upcoming full moon - which NASA's website says will be of "rare size and beauty" - will rise about 08.00 pm (AEDT) on Saturday.
But it becomes full on Sunday morning at 05.10 am (AEDT), one hour before lunar perigee.
"So, Sunday morning, those people who are up early or getting home super late, look to the west and you'll see the biggest moon for 18 years," Mr Wyatt said.
The last time the full moon was so big and close to Earth was in March 1993.
"You've got two cycles here. You've got 29-and-a-half days between full moons and then you've got 27 and a half days from apogee to apogee," Mr Wyatt said.
"That difference builds up and although you get a perigee every month, to get it at minimum distance takes about 18 years."
Perigee full moons also usually bring extra-high tides, but Daniel Jaksa, co-director of the joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre, says they will probably be a fraction of one per cent higher than normal.

Earthquake predictions

Meanwhile an Auckland-based mathematician known as the "Moonman", Ken Ring, has warned the perigee moon will cause another major earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Mr Ring claims he predicted Christchurch's deadly February 22 quake by studying the moon.
But Mr Wyatt says he would like to see some scientific proof to back the Mr Ring's claims.
"For a few weeks now we've been hearing people talk about 'Moonageddon'," he said.
"It's depressing to hear people saying this sort of thing. There is absolutely no evidence for a causal link between the phases of the moon and earthquake activity.
"It's something you might find in 'Tom's Backyard Mechanic's Book of Celestial Tomfoolery', but you're not going to find that in peer-reviewed journals."
Mr Jaksa agrees.
"You only have to look at the major energy source that's driving the tectonic process and it's not the moon," he said.
"It's the convection currents in the mantle as the Earth tries to cool down from its core outwards that drives plate tectonics."
Mr Wyatt says the claims are a symptom of the human condition.
"People blame things on the alignment of the planets because they want an explanation, but it's not the moon's fault," he said.