Brazil’s Air Force and Navy have found two bodies, personal effects and a wing fragment from the Air France flight that went down over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1 with 228 people aboard.

The bodies of two men were recovered about 850 kilometers (530 miles) northeast of Fernando de Noronha island, the Air Force and Navy said in a statement. Also found were a blue aircraft seat, a leather bag containing an Air France ticket and a backpack with a vaccination card inside.

“This should help relieve some of the anguish of the families,” Air Force Colonel Jorge Amaral told reporters in Recife, in northeastern Brazil. “Until now they didn’t have any information on what happened.”

The recovery of the bodies follows disputes between French and Brazilian officials over whether debris found in the Atlantic on June 4 came from the Airbus A330-200 jet which was en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro when it went down.

Jose Ramos, a spokesman for Brazil’s Defense Ministry, said yesterday there is “no doubt” items spotted by the Brazilian air force are from the Airbus. French officials said the country’s planes have been searching in the wrong area because no debris from the Air France flight had been found.

Brazilian officials said two days ago that a pallet and flotation devices that searchers plucked from the ocean belonged to the Airbus. Hours later, Brazil’s Air Force said those items weren’t from the Air France flight. Ramos said yesterday that he’s confident items sighted are from the downed plane.

Ships, helicopters and aircraft scoured the ocean off Brazil’s northeastern coast for wreckage of the plane that went down in stormy weather. As many as 11 planes and seven vessels from five countries were involved in the search.

Bodies found in the search will be delivered first to the airport at Fernando de Noronha island and then transferred to Recife, the capital of Pernambuco state. The state medical examiner’s office will be responsible for examining the remains, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz, a spokesman for Brazil’s Air Force, told reporters in Recife today.

The search area is being expanded to more than 200,000 square kilometers from about 177,000 at the start of the search, Munhoz said. The search will continue through the night with the Brazilian Air Force directing navy ships to potential wreckage zones, Munhoz said.

The Airbus plane was awaiting replacement of a speed sensor that investigators identified as a likely contributor to the accident, two people with knowledge of the matter said yesterday.

The sensor, made by Thales SA, gave inconsistent readings on the speed on June 1. Airbus SAS had advised airlines more than a year ago to replace the sensors on A330 jets with models that are less vulnerable to ice.

France’s chief crash investigator today told journalists at a briefing near Paris that the failure of the air sensor to convey reliable speed data may have kicked off the chain of events that led to the deaths of all 228 people aboard.

“The sensors had not been replaced” with the improved units, said Paul-Louis Arslanian, head of France’s air-accident investigation agency, at a briefing outside Paris. “But that doesn’t mean that without them the plane was dangerous.” The inconsistent speed measurements may have played a role in the crash, though it’s “too early to draw conclusions,” he added.

Air France spokeswoman Veronique Brachet declined to comment, referring all inquiries to investigators.

Flight 447 disappeared with 216 passengers and 12 crew members over the Atlantic. Weather conditions at the time of the crash were no worse than what pilots typically encounter when they fly through the area, known for its violent storms and strong winds, Alain Ratier, who heads France’s weather forecasting agency, said at a briefing.

(Bloomberg.com)