Bodies from Air France plane crash 'found'
- 00:02:05
- ITN
Bodies from Air France plane crash 'found'
Brazilian search crews have found bodies and debris from the Air France flight that crashed into the Atlantic, an air force spokesman has said. Spokesman Jorge Amaral said that the first bodies from the crash were found early on Saturday morning. Mr Amaral said: "This morning at 8:14am, we confirmed the rescue from the water of pieces and bodies that belonged to the Air France flight." Among the debris retrieved was a seat with a serial number that matched the missing flight, a rucksack, and a case with an Air France ticket inside, rescue officials said. Brazil's air force has been scouring a swathe of the Atlantic about 680 miles northeast of Brazil's coast since Monday's crash, which killed all 228 people on board. Several Brazilian navy ships have also arrived in the area, but fears have grown that many bodies sank. It was the the world's deadliest air disaster since 2001 and the worst in Air France's 75-year history. Meanwhile, investigators have said that the autopilot on the flight was not working. Those on board included five Britons, 12 crewmembers, a baby and seven children. Pre-crash signals from Flight 447, which went down en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris last Sunday, showed the autopilot was not working, French investigators said. Paul-Louis Arslanian, the head of the French agency leading the crash investigation, said it was not clear if the pilots switched it off or it stopped working because it received conflicting airspeed readings. Plane manufacturer Airbus said the probe found the flight received inconsistent readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm. Meteorologists said the Air France jet entered an unusual storm with 100mph updrafts that acted as a vacuum, sucking water up from the ocean. The moist air rushed up to the plane's high altitude, where it quickly froze in minus-40 degree temperatures. The updrafts also would have created dangerous turbulence. Investigators are still searching a zone of several hundred square miles for debris from the crash, after earlier reports that wreckage had been found in the Atlantic were found to be wrong.
ITN | June 6, 2009
