Six more bodies were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean where an Air France jet crashed, Brazilian officials said on Friday, as the race to find the plane’s black boxes and gather key evidence from human remains and debris gained urgency.
On the coast, investigators examined corpses and received the first wreckage: two plane seats, oxygen masks, water bottles and several structural pieces, some no bigger than a man’s hand.
Almost two weeks after the crash, Brazil’s military said the search was becoming increasingly difficult and a tentative June 25 date for halting efforts had been set.
Beginning tomorrow, officials will meet every two days to evaluate when to stop the search depending on whether they are still finding bodies or debris.
The black boxes — whose emergency locator 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.
Navy Vice Admiral Edison Lawrence said the Brazilians “have information” that a French ship has found six more bodies — which would bring the total found to 50.
William Waldock, who teaches air crash investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, said the ability for a body to float in water depended on water temperatures and sea life in the area.
In water temperatures like those in the search area, Waldock said an intact body could likely float for two to three weeks.
Medical authorities examining the 16 bodies already brought on to land in Recife have declined to release information about the state of the corpses.
Meanwhile, military ships and planes continued to struggle in worsening weather to find more bodies and debris. Brazilian ships didn’t pick up more bodies on Friday, but they did find more debris, the details of which weren’t disclosed.
The most important piece recovered to date is the virtually intact vertical stabilizer, 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,” Brazilian Air Force General Ramon Cardoso said.
He said French ships equipped with sonar looking for wreckage were approaching an area extending out some 70km from the last known position of the plane.
The plane’s black boxes remain elusive. A French submarine is scouring the area in the hopes of hearing pings from the boxes’ emergency beacons.
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