Air France noticed A330 speed sensor problem last year

Air France first noticed problems with the Airbus 330 speed sensors involved in last week’s deadly crash more than a year ago.

The airline began replacing the sensors with models less vulnerable to ice at the end of April, 18 months after Airbus recommended that clients upgrade the component supplied by Thales SA, Air France said in statement on its Web site. Flight 447 gave inconsistent readings on its speed before disappearing over the Atlantic with 228 people on board.

France’s chief crash investigator said on Saturday that unreliable data from the sensors could have kicked off the chain of events that led to the accident. Brazil’s Air Force and Navy recovered the bodies of two men as well as a blue aircraft seat, a leather bag containing an Air France ticket and a backpack with a vaccination card inside late on Saturday.

“This should help relieve some of the anguish of the families,” Air Force Colonel Jorge Amaral told reporters in Recife, in northeastern Brazil. “Until now they didn’t have any information on what happened.”

Jose Ramos, a spokesman for Brazil’s Defense Ministry, said he’s confident the items recovered about 850 kilometers (530 miles) northeast of Fernando de Noronha island are from the downed plane.

The bodies and belongings will be sent to Recife, where the Pernambuco state medical examiner’s office will analyse them, said Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz, a spokesman for Brazil’s Air Force.