A Brazilian military official has said that searchers found two male bodies in the Atlantic Ocean near the area where an Air France jet is believed to have crashed. Air force spokesman Col Jorge Amaral says the bodies were recovered on Saturday. They were picked up roughly 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast. Amaral says a suitcase also was found containing a plane ticket for the flight. Flight 447 disappeared Sunday with 228 people on board.French investigators said Saturday the Air France Airbus A330 suffered multiple systems failures in its final moments and had speed monitors that had failed on other planes. Automatic error messages sent by the plane just prior to the crash last Monday showed its autopilot was disengaged after conflicting speed readings were given by sensors, the head of the French air accident investigation agency said.
Insurance. I would look into this as a possible motive. French authorities have not ruled out foul play but, rather than terrorism, I would suggest another age-old motive: money.
ReplyDeleteOver the decades, there have been a number of aircraft bombings where the intent was to collect a payout on a large insurance policy. In some cases the bomber themselves were on the plane, and wanted their family to benefit. But in more cases, it was sheer murder for profit.
I would hope that, over the next several months, investigators keep a close eye on each and every insurance claim registered as a result of Flight 447. I'm not talking claims or lawsuits against the airline or whatever.
I'm talking about those quiet, behind-the-scenes claims on good old-fashioned life-insurance policies that, in all likelihood, ever passenger had. And every policy needs to be examined carefully to see when it was taken out, whether it was recently upgraded by a substantial amount, etc.
In this post-9/11 age, it is so quick to jump on terrorism as an explanation. Unfortunately, that makes us forget about another factor that has been around since time began: greed.