A report in French newspaper Les Echos has rekindled debate over the cause of an Air France aircraft en route to Paris from Rio in June 2006. The paper reported that this week Airbus has sent an operational engineering bulletin (OEB) to all airlines operating A330s and A340-200 and 300 to remind their pilots not to reset the autopilot after a malfunctioning of the Pitot speed sensors. It was the A330’s airspeed measurement probes that are suspected of causing flight AF447 to crash into the ocean off Brazil, although this was never proven as the black box wasn’t found.
Airbus has stated that Monday’s bulletin has no connection with the crash although the risk is considered to be serious enough to warrant a bulletin and a change in automatic steering software of the 1,200 A330 and A340 aircraft in service.
A new search for the black box has been scheduled for February.