Officials have confirmed remains and wreckage have been located in the crash of Air France Flight 447, the BBC has confirmed. Information is currently scarce regarding all details of the find, but at a news conference, a spokesperson was quoted as saying:
“We confirm the recovery from the water debris and bodies from the Air France plane. We can’t give more information without confirming what we have.”
Earlier today, airline investigators reported that 24 automated error messages had been sent prior to the aircraft’s disappearance, including one indicating that the plane’s autopilot had “disengaged.”
All 228 passengers and crew members are believed to have perished on the flight.
The remains of the two male passengers were taken from the water off Brazil's northern coast at 9.10am and 11.30am local time after a passing ship raised the alert. Experts on human remains are on their way to the region to examine the find.
All 228 passengers and crew on board flight 447 are believed to have been killed when the plane disappeared in the early hours of last Monday morning, about four hours after taking off from Rio de Janeiro en route to Paris.
Speaking at a news conference in the city of Recife yesterday, Brazilian Air Force spokesman, Jorge Amaral, confirmed the discovery of the bodies.
He later added that objects linked to passengers known to be on the flight had also been found, including a suitcase with a plane ticket and a backpack with a computer inside.
"It was confirmed with Air France that the ticket number corresponds to a passenger on the flight," said Amaral.
A blue seat was also found, and Air France is checking the serial number to see whether it came from the flight.
The remains were picked up 500 miles north-east of the islands of Fernando de Noronha, off Brazil's northern coast, not far from where the last signal from the plane was received.
They are the first items found which can be definitely linked to the doomed flight, after disappointment midweek when airline seats and chunks of metal floating in what was thought to be the radius crash site turned out to be unrelated.
The cause of the accident remains unresolved, but investigators yesterday revealed that the Airbus A330 sent out 24 error messages during the final minutes of the flight. Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of the French agency leading the investigation, said the messages - transmitted automatically - are being analysed by experts.
He added that signals sent by the plane before it disappeared show its autopilot was not on, but that it was impossible to say at this stage whether it had been switched off deliberately by the pilots or had stopped working as it received conflicting airspeed readings.
Plane manufacturer Airbus says the investigation found the flight received inconsistent readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.
Investigator Alain Bouillard said it was vital to locate a beacon called a "pinger" that should be attached to the cockpit voice and data recorders, now presumed to be deep in the Atlantic, but he added there was "no guarantee" it would still be attached to the recorder.
Investigators are trying to determine the location of the debris in the ocean based on the height and speed of the plane when the last message was received. Currents could also have scattered debris far along the ocean floor.
Laurent Kerleguer, an engineer working with the investigation team, said the zone seen as the most likely site of the debris was 15,112ft at its deepest point.
Water salinity and temperature can affect the distance that the beacon's signal can travel.
A French submarine has also joined the search. It has sonar equipment which could help locate the flight data recorders "black box" which has vital clues about the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
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