RECIFE, Brazil — Search ships methodically worked through a “sea of debris” from a doomed Air France jet today, recovering four more bodies near the spot where the Airbus A330 is believed to have gone down a week ago.
Six bodies have been retrieved since Saturday and ships were headed to pick up more this afternoon after pilots participating in a grid search reported additional sightings. The bodies have been found in an area about 45 miles from where the jet sent out messages signaling electrical failures and loss of cabin pressure.
“We’re navigating through a sea of debris,” Brazilian Navy Capt. Giucemar Tabosa Cardoso said.
Brazil’s military is not releasing information about bodies or debris that have not been taken aboard ships, after sea trash was mistaken last week for a cargo pallet from the plane, prompting criticism.
Flight 447 disappeared and likely broke up in midair in turbulent weather May 31 during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people aboard — all now presumed dead.
The investigation is increasingly focused on whether external instruments on the Airbus A330 may have iced over, confusing speed sensors and leading computers to set the plane’s speed too fast or slow — a potentially deadly mistake.
The French agency investigating the disaster said airspeed instruments on the plane had not been replaced as the maker had recommended, but cautioned that it was too early to draw conclusions about what role that may have played in the crash.
The agency, BEA, said the plane received inconsistent airspeed readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.
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