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France-Brazil - Missing plane
Debris found in search for plane
Article published on the 2009-06-02 Latest update 2009-06-02 13:18 TU
Relatives of AF447 passengers arrive at Windsor Hotel in Rio de Janeiro to wait for more information, 2 June 2009
(Photo: Reuters/Bruno Domingos)
The “small remains” were discovered
Spokesman Jorge Amaral said it was not yet clear if the debris was from the missing aircraft but did confirm that a seat was among the wreckage.
Amaral said officials needed “a piece that might have a serial number, some sort of identification” before they could confirm that it came from the missing plane.
Amaral said the search would continue because it was “very little material in relation to the size” of the Air France Airbus A330.
Investigators are still seeking clues as to why the plane disappeared four hours into its 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Earlier, Brazilian and French search teams battled bad weather as they focused their efforts on an area halfway between South America and Africa.
Based on the last signal from flight AF 447, they concentrated on a zone some 1,100 kilometres off Brazil’s northern coast. The automatic message warned of multiple electric and pressurisation failures.
French invesigators also acted on information passed on by a Brazilian pilot with TAM Airlines, who reported seeing orange glimmers on the surface of the ocean under Senegalese airspace.
"We received this information at around 4.30am (0230 GMT) from a Brazilian pilot who said he'd seen faint glows on the surface, in an area consistent with the A330's last reported position," said French military spokesman Captain Christophe Prazuck.
Prazuck said a French surveillance plane had flown back along the missing jet's planned flightpath to its last known position. "We didn't find anything, but the weather was terrible, with what we call a tropical convergence front," he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met distressed families of victims yesterday at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, said there was very little hope that anyone survived. The passenger list included people from thirty-two countries, around half of whom are from France and Brazil.
Michel Pieraerts told Le Parisien newspaper that his sister Christine, an engineer with Michelin, was on the flight.
"My mother heard the news on the radio. She knew my sister was on that flight," he said.
As relatives of victims waited for news at Charles de Gaulle airport and Rio de Janeiro International Airport, reports have emerged of people who narrowly avoided boarding the flight.
Claude Jaffiol and his wife Amina had tried to cut short their stay in Brazil to return to Montpellier. But despite enlisting the help of their friend, a diplomat in Brazil, they weren't allowed on to the flight.
"We were incredibly lucky. With hindsight, we were scared. Our thoughts are with everyone who was on the plane," said Amina Jaffiol.
