Six more bodies have been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean where an Air France jet crashed killing 216 passengers, Brazilian officials said yesterday, bringing to 50 the number of bodies found since the crash on May 31.
Almost two weeks after the crash, Brazil's military said the search is becoming increasingly difficult, and a they gave a tentative date of 25 June to halt their efforts. The bodies were found on the same day that wreckage from the crash was found washed ashore in Brazil.
The wreckage included two plane seats, oxygen masks, water bottles, and several parts of the Airbus A330's structure.
The plane's black boxes – which have yet to be located and whose emergency beacons begin to fade after 30 days – along with debris and bodies from the jet, all contain crucial clues as to how and why Air France Flight 447 went down en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The most important piece of evidence recovered so far is the planes virtually intact vertical tail fin, which could give the French investigative agency BEA solid clues about what prompted the crash.
"The debris will be at the disposition of the BEA and they will decide what to do with it," the Brazilian air force general. Ramon Cardoso told the Associated Press.
He said French ships equipped with sonar were looking for underwater wreckage and were approaching an area extending out over 40 miles from the last known position of the plane.
The plane's black boxes remain elusive. A French nuclear submarine is scouring the search area in the hope of hearing pings from their emergency beacons. The first of two locator listening devices is scheduled to arrive from the US on Sunday.
Bad weather has reduced visibility for ships, and cloud cover has blocked satellite imagery.
So far, there is no evidence of an explosion or terrorist act, but there have been a number of clues that describe systemic failures on the plane. A burst of 24 automatic messages sent during the final minutes of the flight show the autopilot was not on, but it was not clear if it was switched off by the pilots or stopped working due to conflicting airspeed readings, perhaps caused by iced-over speed sensors.
