Brazilian Air Force denies mistakes in Air France Flight 447 case

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Air Force released a statement on Friday in which it denies any errors in the Air France Flight 447 case, and said it warned the Senegalese air traffic control that the Air France's Flight 447 was heading to.

Brazil Air Force also released an audio record of communication with the doomed Air France plane on the day to avoid the blame from French investigation report that Brazil's slowness to notice the lost of Flight 447 delayed the searching efforts.

The statement said, Flight 447 made the last contact with Brazil at 10:33 p.m. local time on May 31 (0133 GMT, June 1), and informed the estimated time to pass the next checkpoint. The Brazilian air traffic control, then informed Dakar of the plane's position, and Dakar confirmed the reception of the information.

Brazil Air Force also mentioned an agreement with Senegalese air traffic control departments which says if a plane enters Senegalese airspace in time, it is not necessary to inform the Brazilian authorities to formalize the control transference.

Brazil Air Force therefore concluded it should be the Senegalese responsibility to timely check the plane's position and to alert Brazil about the lost of contact.

The first report released by French investigators did not shed much light on the causes of the June 1 crash of Flight 447, which fell into the Atlantic Ocean and killed 228 people on board.