Air France injuries suggest midair breakup

SÃO PAULO — Autopsies have revealed fractures in the legs, hips and arms of Air France disaster victims, injuries that — coupled with the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic — strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air, experts said Wednesday.

With more than 400 bits of debris recovered from the ocean's surface, the top French investigator expressed optimism about discovering what brought down Flight 447 on June 1, but he also called the conditions — far from land in very deep waters — "one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation."

French investigators are beginning to form "an image that is progressively less fuzzy," Paul-Louis Arslanian, who runs the French air-accident investigation agency BEA, said at a news conference near Paris.

A spokesman for Brazilian medical examiners said Wednesday that fractures were found in autopsies on an undisclosed number of the 50 bodies recovered. The official spoke on condition he not be named.

"Typically, if you see intact bodies and multiple fractures — arm, leg, hip fractures — it's a good indicator of a midflight breakup," said Frank Ciacco, a former forensic expert at the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. "Especially if you're seeing large pieces of aircraft as well."

The pattern of fractures was first reported Wednesday by Brazil's O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, which cited unnamed investigators. The paper also reported that some victims were found with little or no clothing, and had no signs of burns.

That lack of clothing could be significant, said Jack Casey, an aviation-safety consultant in Washington, D.C., who is a former accident investigator. "In an in-air breakup like we are supposing here, the clothes are just torn away."

Casey also said multiple fractures are consistent with a midair breakup of the plane, which was cruising at about 34,500 feet when it went down.

"Getting ejected into that kind of windstream is like hitting a brick wall; even if they stay in their seats, it is a crushing effect," Casey said. "Most of them were long dead before they hit the water, would be my guess."