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Bodies of Air France flight victims found
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-07 08:26 RECIFE – Searchers found two bodies and the first confirmed debris - a briefcase containing an Air France Flight 447 ticket - in the Atlantic Ocean near where the jetliner is believed to have crashed, a Brazil military official said Saturday.
The French agency investigating the disaster, meanwhile, said airspeed instruments were not replaced as the maker recommended before the plane disappeared in turbulent weather nearly a week ago during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people aboard.
The bodies of two male passengers were recovered Saturday morning about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of where Air France Flight 447 emitted its last signals - roughly 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast. Brazilian air force spokesman Col. Jorge Amaral said an Air France ticket was found inside a leather briefcase. "It was confirmed with Air France that the ticket number corresponds to a passenger on the flight," he said. Admiral Edison Lawrence said the bodies were being transported to the Fernando de Noronha islands for identification. A backpack with a laptop and a vaccination card also was recovered. The finds could potentially establish a more precise search area for the crucial black box flight recorders that could tell investigators why the jet crashed. Finding the flight data and voice recorders, however, is not the concern of the Brazilian searchers, who don't have the deepwater submersibles needed to find the black boxes. Those are being provided by France. "The black box is not the responsibility of this operation, the aim of which is the search for survivors, bodies and debris - in that sequence of priority," said Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz. The discovery of the bodies and debris gave relief to some family members, many of whom gathered in a hotel in Rio, where they've received constant updates about the search. Others, however, refused to give up on the chance for survivors. "We're shaken, but we still have hope," Sonia Gagliano, whose grandson Lucas Gagliano was an air steward on the flight, told the O Globo newspaper. "He was a young boy, just 23 years old, and he spoke eight languages. I'm in a complete daze with all this." Investigators have been searching a zone of several hundred square miles (square kilometers) for debris. A blue plane seat with a serial number on it has been recovered, but officials were still trying to confirm with Air France that it was a seat belonging to Flight 477. The French accident investigation agency, BEA, found the plane received inconsistent airspeed readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm. The investigation is increasingly focused on whether external instruments may have iced over, confusing speed sensors and leading computers to set the plane's speed too fast or slow - a potentially deadly mistake in severe turbulence. Airbus recommended that all its airline customers replace instruments that help measure speed and altitude, known as Pitot tubes, on the A330, the model used for Flight 447, said Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the agency. "They hadn't yet been replaced" on the plane that crashed, said Alain Bouillard, head of the French investigation. Air France issued a statement Saturday saying it began replacing the monitors on the Airbus A330 model on April 27 after an improved version became available. |
