Air France urges that crash probe be given time

PARIS (Reuters) - Air France's chief executive on Thursday dismissed media speculation about the cause of the 2009 Rio-Paris plane crash and said it was too early to say what had caused the disaster. Pierre-Henri Gourgeon also declined to say whether the outcome of an examination of the Airbus's black boxes could affect his position at the helm of the airline and Franco-Dutch parent Air France-KLM.

There have been conflicting media reports about the initial readings of the data. The newspaper Le Figaro pointed the finger this week at the Air France crew, but the radio station Europe 1 reported on Thursday that the crew had been cleared.

The senior official in charge of the investigation told the AFP news agency on Wednesday that preliminary examination of the black boxes had ruled out any "major malfunction" of the aircraft, but that minor faults had not been ruled out.

Gourgeon told Thursday's earnings news conference: "It is impossible today to draw conclusions about any kind of responsibility ...

"Let's wait until the experts give us a coherent message before heading off into one direction or another and speculating."

The Airbus A330 crashed in mid-Atlantic on June 1, 2009, killing all 228 people on board. The flight data recorders were recovered this month and are now being examined by France's BEA crash investigation agency.

Gourgeon, a former head of France's civil aviation authority, said history had shown that air accidents were typically "the product of several elements coming together at one time and place."

Air France has reviewed all its safety measures, he added.

"If something appears from the investigation that we have not already covered by measures already taken, then we will take them to be certain such an event never happens again."

Gourgeon was reappointed to his post for four years by the airline group's board on Thursday but the decision must be approved by shareholders in July, raising the prospect of an overlap with publication of BEA's interim safety findings.

Asked whether he felt his position was under threat if Air France took part of the blame, Gourgeon said the BEA's job was to establish causes or safety failings, but not to attribute responsibility.

Air France and Airbus both face a separate judicial investigation into the causes of the crash.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher and Cyril Altmeyer; Editing by Kevin Liffey)