RECIFE, Brazil — Military ships and planes struggled in worsening weather today to find more bodies and debris from the Air France jet that likely cracked apart over the Atlantic Ocean. 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.
Other debris from the jet — which went down May 31 with 228 people on board — will arrive by ship in Recife on Sunday. 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 Gen. Ramon Cardoso said.
So far, 44 bodies have been recovered. Cardoso said no more bodies were spotted or recovered today, but searchers did see more pieces of debris, slightly west of the main search area, which lies 400 miles northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil’s northern coast.
The plane’s black boxes — perhaps the best hope of definitively learning what went wrong — remain elusive. A French nuclear submarine is scouring the search area in the hopes of hearing pings from the boxes’ emergency beacons. The first of two U.S. locator listening devices won’t arrive until Sunday.
Some of the bodies have been found more than 50 miles apart, which could support a high-altitude breakup, or simply reflect strong ocean currents in the days since the crash. Authorities hope that by identifying the victims — determining where they were sitting and examining their injuries — they will find more clues.
Meanwhile, the weather in the mid-Atlantic is bad and getting worse. Rains have reduced visibility for ships, and cloud cover has blocked satellite imagery. The seas are getting rougher, and bodies don’t float indefinitely. Brazil’s military will decide next week whether to halt the search for bodies on June 19 or extend it for another six days, Cardoso said.
So far, there is no evidence of an explosion or terrorist act, but a number of clues that describe systemic failures on the plane. A burst of 24 automatic messages sent during its final minutes of flight show the autopilot was not on, but it was not clear if it was switched off by the pilots or stopped working due to conflicting airspeed readings, perhaps caused by iced-over speed sensors.
Peter Goelz, former managing director of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, said the evidence uncovered so far suggests the Airbus A330 started breaking up in the air.
Coroners in Recife said they expected to release the first details on the condition of the corpses later today. Goelz and other experts said injuries such as burns or broken bones could provide important clues.
Without any other solid clues, investigators have focused on the possibility that external speed monitors iced over and gave false readings to the plane’s computers. Air France ordered these Pitot tubes replaced on the long-range Airbus planes on April 27 after pilots noted a loss of airspeed data in a few flights on Airbus A330 and A340 models, he said.
Those incidents were “not catastrophic” and planes with the old Pitots are considered airworthy, Air France chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said.
“We will know much more, I think, after the autopsies allow us to better understand the technical causes of death, and when the debris have been examined by experts,” he said.
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