SPANISH CN235 USED IN SEARCH FOR DOWNED AIR FRANCE JETLINER
July 9, 2009
A Spanish Guardia Civil CN235 was deployed in search and recovery efforts after an Air France jetliner crashed in the Atlantic, demonstrating the rapid-response capabilities for Airbus Military’s family of tactical aircraft.
The CN235 is based in Senegal, and is operated on missions that include monitoring movements, human trafficking and illegal immigration. It was diverted to help pinpoint the Air France airliner’s accident area after this Rio de Janeiro-to-Paris flight was reported lost June 1 while approaching Senegalese-controlled airspace off the coast of West Africa.
As with the longer-fuselage C295 version proposed for Canada’s Fixed Wing Search and Rescue mission, the Spanish Guardia Civil CN235 is equipped with bubble spotter windows, an under-fuselage radar and a chin-mounted turret with sensors – all of which assisted crews while looking for signs of the Air France flight’s crash site.
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