ALDA vessel to retrieve black boxes in Egypt
Paris, January 9,
2004 – Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA)
today announced that the French government will use one of their cable-laying
ships to attempt the retrieval of the flight recorders from the plane that recently
crashed in the Sharm El-Sheikh disaster.
The vessel “Ile de Batz”, which was returning from an Asian cable-laying mission,
is now in the Red Sea near the Suez Canal. The “Ile de Batz” is owned by ALDA
Marine, a French joint venture between Alcatel (51%) and LDA (49%).
This ship, which LDA has registered to fly under the French flag, is designed
to lay and maintain submarine communication cables, is ideally suited for this
type of search mission. This extremely powerful ship includes Dynamic Positioning
(via GPS) enabling it to maintain its position at a given point in spite of
adverse weather conditions. The “Ile de Batz” is approximately 140 meters in
length and can operate at great depths.
The vessel will carry a submarine ROV (Remotely Operated
Vehicle) provided by France Telecom, and its mission is to recover the plane’s
black boxes.
Furthermore, the ship has a specialized crane with a lifting capacity of 50
tons, which could eventually be used to retrieve pieces of the plane debris.
Paris, January 18, 2004 - Alcatel and LDA address their congratulations to the
crew of the Cable Ship "Ile de Batz" for the professionalism they
have shown in assisting the successful research of the two black boxes. Alcatel
and LDA furthermore praise themselves for the great cooperation between three
French companies that led to the retrieval of the black boxes.
