Brazilian air force finds Air France plane debris

Posted: 02 June 2009 2044 hrs

A Brazilian couple, relatives of a passenger onboard the ill-fated Air France flight 447.

BRASILIA - Search aircraft on Tuesday found a seat and other debris from a plane in a remote stretch of the Atlantic where an Air France flight carrying 228 people disappeared, Brazil's air force said.

The "small remains" were discovered around 1,100 kilometres (680 miles) off northeastern Brazil, some 650 kilometres northeast of Brazil's Atlantic island of Fernando do Noronha.

The items included a seat from a plane, bits of white material, an orange buoy, a barrel and some oil and kerosene slicks, grouped in two floating patches 60 kilometers apart, according to an air force statement.

It could not immediately be confirmed that the debris was from Air France flight AF 447, the spokesman, Colonel Jorge Amaral, told reporters.

There were no signs of survivors, he said.

"The search is continuing because it's very little material in relation to the size" of the Air France Airbus A330, he said.

He added that officials needed "a piece that might have a serial number, some sort of identification" to be sure that it came from the missing airliner.

However the items were found near where the Air France plane sent its final message: an automatic data signal telling of multiple electric and pressurization failures.

Air France flight AF 447 disappeared mid-Atlantic on Monday, four hours into an 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

A Brazilian air force statement said the debris was discovered at 0300 GMT Tuesday by an Embraer R-99 AWAC plane fitted with onboard radar that detected metallic and non-metallic items floating in the ocean.

After homing in the search to that locale, other air force planes at 0949 GMT spotted the patches of floating debris.

- AFP /ls

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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