More bodies found from missing flight

Search teams recover three more bodies from an Air France flight that crashed in the Atlantic last week.

Brazilian search teams today recovered three more bodies from an Air France flight that crashed in the Atlantic last week and were working in bad weather to grab others spotted, military officials said. The finds follow the recovery yesterday of the first two bodies from the disaster, which occurred early on June 1 as Air France flight AF 447 was travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. "Three other bodies were localised this morning (Sunday) and are being transferred to the frigate Consititucion," a spokesman for Brazil's air force, Lt Col Henry Munhoz, told reporters in Recife, Brazil. The sex of the three bodies recovered could not be determined, he said, suggesting how bad a condition they were in after a week in the water. "Other bodies are being spotted by the ships" scouring the area, 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) off Brazil's north-east coast, Lt Col Munhoz said, adding they should be recovered in the next few hours. He did not say how many bodies had been sighted. The operations at sea were being carried out in "unfavourable" weather, the spokesman said. Lt Col Munhoz said the discovery of the bodies, along with the recovery of several Air France seats and, yesterday, a briefcase with an Air France ticket and a backpack, confirmed the search teams were at or near the spot the plane came down. "There are no doubts that the recovered debris is from the plane, as well as the bodies," he said. The Brazilian navy frigate Constitucion was to take the recovered bodies to the closest port, in Brazil's Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, 800 kilometres away. It was expected to arrive there tomorrow. From there, the bodies were to be flown to a morgue set up in the mainland city of Recife, from where the search operation was being co-ordinated. * AFP