© BEA
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/co ... d=blogDestIt is still unclear how much of a set back the absence of the CSMU (at right in second picture; marked as "enregistreur de vol" and indicated as "module memoir") this represents.
The FDR casing (marked as: "chassis" above) was found on the first dive of the Remora 6000 unmanned, underwater vehicle, which operated for 12 hours. Other aircraft debris was in the area.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... ssing.html
DATE:27/04/11
SOURCE:Air Transport Intelligence news
PICTURE: AF447 flight-data recorder found but memory unit missing
By David Kaminski-Morrow
Search teams trying to locate the flight recorders from Air France flight AF447 have located the flight-data recorder, but not the critical memory unit.
The chassis of the recorder was located during the first dive operation by a remote underwater vehicle, the Remora 6000, after a recovery vessel arrived in the crash zone yesterday.
France's Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses states that the chassis of the flight-data recorder has been found on the sea bed "surrounded by debris from other parts of the airplane".
But the BEA adds that the crucial crash-survivable memory unit - in which the data from the aircraft's instruments is stored - was not attached.
There is no indication of the whereabouts of the cockpit-voice recorder.
Flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed in the South Atlantic on 1 June 2009, sparking a two-year hunt for the Airbus A330-200's wreckage.