New delay in search for crashed Rio-Paris plane

Families of victims of crashed Rio-Paris Flight 447 said Thursday a new search for wreckage has been delayed, and they accused French investigators of dragging their feet.

The families met Thursday with France's transport minister, Dominique Bussereau, to ask about timing and financing for renewed search efforts for the Air France plane that crashed June 1 in the Atlantic. All 228 people aboard were killed.

Bussereau told the families the third phase of the search is now scheduled to resume in the end of February, according to Robert Soulas, who lost his daughter and son-in-law in the accident and is part of an association of victims' loved ones.

Investigators initially said the search could resume by the end of 2009, then said it would be January.

"Things are dragging on. The longer we wait, the less likely it is we will find anything," Soulas said. He called the meeting with Bussereau "very, very disappointing."

The first two search operations after the crash turned up 50 bodies and about 1,000 pieces of wreckage - but not the black box flight recorders that could give clues as to what made it plunge into the sea during thunderstorms at night. The boxes are believed to be somewhere on the ocean floor at extreme depths.

Bussereau defended the accident investigation agency as "the best in the world."

"An air investigation, it doesn't finish in a few months," he said after the meeting.

Bussereau said the next search effort would cost tens of millions of euros (dollars) and be funded jointly by Air France, Airbus and the French state, according to those who attended the meeting. Bussereau rejected a request to have an outside observer attend meetings of the French accident investigation agency related to the search.

Investigators have yet to hire experts meant to determine which section of the sea to target in the next search, and it's still unclear what equipment will be needed and who will supply it, said John Clemes, who attended Thursday's meeting and whose brother was aboard the flight.

"They gave no explanation of why it's taking them so long to get it organized," he said. "It's been five months."

The families also expressed concern about tensions between Air France pilots and airline management about flight safety. Air France sternly warned pilots recently to be more vigilant in a memo that labor unions saw as a suggestion that pilot error was to blame for the Flight 447 crash.