The Brazilian Air Force announced on Wednesday that more debris from the Air France Flight 447 has been found.
The items, a seven-meter-long object and 10 other objects, some of them metallic, were spotted by the search planes at 3:40 am, the Air Force stated. A 20-kilometer-long oil track was spotted as well.
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Air France employees react outside the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris after an ecumenical church service on June 3, 2009 for relatives and families of the passengers of Air France's flight 447 that vanished Monday over the Atlantic Ocean. [Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies] |
The items were found in four different points, spread over a five kilometers radius, 90 kilometers south of the place where the first debris were spotted. According to the Air Force, the debris' position alone is no indication that the Air France plane suffered some sort of explosion in the air.
The plane which identified the debris, an Embraer R-99 model, has not spotted any bodies, but according to the Air Force's spokesman, Colonel Jorge Amaral, the authorities are still working with the possibility of finding survivors of the accident.
A total of 11 aircraft are involved in the search efforts, including a P-3 Orion model from the U.S. Air Force and a Falcon 50 model from the French Air Force. The remaining planes, including three Lockheed C-130 Hercules models, all belong to the Brazilian Air Force.
The French government also sent submarines, in an attempt to find the plane's Flight Data Recorder, which may help uncover the causes of the crash. This may prove to be a difficult task, as the depth in the area surpasses 4,000 meters; additionally, there is no guarantee that the information in the Flight Data Recorder will explain the circumstances of the accident.
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Photo released by Brazilian Air Force shows a Brazilian Air Force jet searching for the possible survivors in the air crash over the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil on June 3, 2009. The Brazilian Air Force announced on Wednesday that more debris from the Air France Flight 447 has been found. The plane which identified the debris, an Embraer R-99 model, has not spotted any bodies, but according to the Air Force's spokesman, Colonel Jorge Amaral, the authorities are still working with the possibility of finding survivors of the accident. [Xinhua Photo] |
On Wednesday morning, the first Brazilian Navy ship reached the area in which the first debris was spotted. As soon as the Grajau ship manages to find the items, it will start to collect the material for analysis.
Two other Brazilian Navy ships, the Frigate Constituicao and the Corvette Caboclo, are to reach the site on Thursday. A total of five Navy ships are involved in the search, as well as three mercantile ships which were in the area.
All the items collected will be taken first to the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, located about 650 kilometers from the crash site, and then to Pernambuco state's capital city Recife, where they will be analyzed. Later on, the items may be taken to France, where the investigations to determine the cause of the crash will take place.
The Air France Flight 447 took off from Rio on Sunday Morning, disappearing hours later without distress call. The place carried 228 occupants, including eight children.
(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2009)
