Air France pilots claim crash cover-up

PARIS, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Air France pilots say there's an ongoing cover-up in the probe of the crash of Flight 447, asserting officials are rushing to blame the crew for the disaster.

The June 1 crash of the Airbus 330 during stormy weather off the coast of Brazil killed 228 passengers and crew. Investigators recovered about 50 bodies and some wreckage, but the plane's flight data recorders have not been found.

Gerard Arnoux, a spokesman for the Union of Air France Pilots, told Wednesday's Times of London that France's Bureau of Investigation and Analysis, or BEA, and airline officials are "trying to blame the pilots. They do not want the truth."

Arnoux accused the BEA of trying to deflect blame for its own mistake of not acting on known faults with Airbus 330 speed sensors, known as pitot tubes, telling the newspaper, "The architecture of the Airbus systems is in question."

Families of the crash victims, meanwhile, are leveling charges of dishonesty at the BEA and Air France, reportedly saying a move by the airline Tuesday ordering special pilot training on managing high-altitude Airbus systems failures was an attempt to blame the crew for the mishap.