French air-accident investigators said the forced descent of an Air France jet in storms off Brazil last month may help explain why a plane operated by the carrier plunged into the Atlantic near the same spot in June.
In the November 29th incident, an Airbus SAS A330 aircraft en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris encountered severe turbulence and descended into calmer weather before completing the trip.
"The incident could shed some light because of its similarities in terms of location and weather conditions," Martine Del Bono, a spokeswoman for the BEA, France's air-crash agency, said today.
The probe will also look at why air-traffic controllers didn't respond to a mayday signal.
Findings won't be available by December 17th, when the office will present its latest findings on the loss of Air France Flight 447 on June 1st, which killed all 228 passengers and crew, including three young Irish doctors and two Aer Lingus employees.
In a report on August 31st the BEA said it hadn't ascertained what caused the crash and that the probe may last a further 1 1/2 years.
The plane's flight recorders haven't been located. Both incidents involved Airbus A330-200 planes.
Bloomberg