PARIS  The chief executive of Airbus said Thursday that the company would contribute a “significant” sum to help finance an extended search for the flight recorders and undersea wreckage of an Air France A330 jetliner that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean two months ago, killing all 228 people aboard.
“We want to know what happened, as improving air safety is our top priority,” the chief executive, Thomas O. Enders, said in a statement. “Thus we are fully committed to support the extension of the search with a significant contribution.”
Aircraft manufacturers and airlines routinely provide technical support to accident investigators in the event of a crash, but it is unusual for them to share in the financing of any phase of the investigation, which is supposed to be impartial. Stefan Schaffrath, an Airbus spokesman, said the Flight 447 case was the first time that Airbus had offered to “sponsor” a search mission.
“This is an exceptional accident and an exceptional situation,” Mr. Schaffrath said.
Air France Flight 447 had left Rio de Janeiro and was en route to Paris on June 1 when it went down during strong thunderstorms in an area 600 miles off northern Brazil. Search teams recovered more than 600 pieces of debris from the ocean, representing only about 5 percent of the airframe, investigators have said. The bulk of the wreckage, including the critical “black box” data and cockpit voice recorders, has not been found and is presumed to be lying somewhere on the mountainous seabed, miles below the ocean surface.
An Air France A330. 
Airbus have announced that they will be willing to contribute between €12 million and €20 million (about US$16 million to $28 million) to fund an extended search for the black boxes from Air France Flight 447. The  jetliner crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in June, killing all 228 people on board.

Chief executive Thomas Enders said in a statement, "We want to know what happened, as improving air safety is our top priority. We are fully committed to support the extension of the search with a significant contribution." Although airframers normally supply technical assistance to investigations, the required impartiality makes funding rare, with Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath saying the company's move was unprecedented.

"This is an exceptional accident and an exceptional situation," Schaffrath explained. France's investigative agency BEA has requested financial assistance for the search from both Airbus and Air France. Air France have discussed this possibility with the BEA.

Investigators have already given up looking for the  and  using the conventional method of tracing audio 'pingers', the batteries of which would have expired after 30–40 days.  Efforts are ongoing using sensitive equipment under tow from a French naval vessel, but if this search proves fruitless then the BEA will seek money for a further three-month search.

The jet's  (ACARS) was able to transmit information regarding problems on board prior to the crash. The ACARS data suggests that the plane had suffered from a loss of valuable readings including airspeed, leading suspicion to fall on the  which supplies various measurements. 

Airbus had already recommended that one component of this system, the , be replaced on A330s. Air France had not done this on the accident airplane although the entire fleet now features the modified design. Three other incidents have been identified since that may involve similar circumstances. The United States National Transportation Safety Board is probing two over American soil while earlier this month another Air France A330 equipped with the new tubes suffered a similar series of problems enroute from Italy to France.