Walter Pierce

Local company in holding pattern, Air France search extended

by Walter Pierce

Lafayette-based C&C Technologies is still awaiting word from the French government on whether it will be enlisted to scour the floor of the Atlantic Ocean in search of the voice and data recorders from Air France Flight 447, which crashed off the Brazilian coast June 1 while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

C&C was anticipating a call late last week when the battery power for the electronic signals from the recorders — aka “black boxes” — was expected to finally die. But the French government agency in charge of the operation extended the search until July 10. At that point the signals from the black boxes will almost certainly be dead, which would necessitate calling on a company like C&C —  which primarily serves the oil and gas exploration industry — to use autonomous underwater vehicles to find the boxes. The French have already contacted C&C about joining the operation, as the INDsider detailed in a June 25 report. There is speculation, however, that the French may simply call off the search after July 10, leaving the exact cause of the tragedy that claimed 228 lives unknown.