French: Search for Flight 447 to continue

8220;France is determined to continue the search as long as there is hope of finding the black boxes,8221; Morin told reporters at the Paris Air show,seeking to play down reported disaccord between the two countries over how long to keep up the operation.

8220;We8217;ve now found 49 bodies. And we8217;ll continue doing this until the moment that,technically,we determine the searches are useless,8221; Jobim told the Agencia Estado news agency.

Jobim said that after four or more days of not finding bodies,the search could perhaps be halted. The last bodies were believed to have been found on Friday by a French vessel,but that has not been confirmed.

Late on Tuesday,Brazilian Captain Giucemar Tabosa Cardoso said,Another body had been found in the area of the accident,bringing the total to 50.

At the search scene,a vast swath of the Atlantic northeast of Brazil,the weather was fine on Tuesday and ships sailed in a grid pattern,trying to find more debris and bodies.

Jobim said the French will continue searching and helping to identify the bodies,but the entire identification process would take place in Brazil 8220;to avoid double autopsies,which would be a horrible thing for the families.8221;

Flight 447 crashed into the sea May 31 as it hit thunderstorms en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Experts say the evidence uncovered so far points to at least a partial midair breakup of the plane,with no signs of an explosion or terrorist act.

Without the black boxes,thought to be thousands of feet meters underwater,the probe into the disaster that killed 228 people has focused on the possibility that external speed monitors iced over and gave false readings to the plane8217;s computers.

There is no hard evidence that the speed monitors 8211; Pitot tubes 8211; were to blame. However,pilots8217; union official said Air France had finished replacing air speed monitors on all its long-haul Airbus aircraft under pressure from pilots who feared they might be linked to the crash. The plane that crashed had older Pitot tubes.

Airbus8217; chief salesman,John Leahy,defended his company8217;s handling of information about past difficulties with Pitot tubes,saying it followed normal procedures for sending out 8220;service bulletins8221; to airlines about them. 8220;It8217;s up to the airlines to decide what they want to do on that.8221;

Families of about 40 of the victims have created a new group to defend their interests in seeking information from the French government and Air France,which they say has treated them with 8220;a lack of humanity,8221; according to spokesman Christophe Guillot-Noel.

Guillot-Noel told a news conference in Paris the families wanted access to counseling and updates on the inquiry into the causes of the crash.

8220;We are not here to seek alms; we are simply here so that the families who depended on the people who were in the airplane can have the necessary comfort to be able to withstand this catastrophe,8221; Guillot-Noel said. The group is called the Association for Truth,Aid and Defense of Victims of Flight 447.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders noted that the company doesn8217;t run the investigation. 8220;We offer support,but we do not speculate about the reasons. It is still too early. There is no possibility to know at this point why Air France 447 really came down.8221;

And company officials said the A330 has been a reliable part of what records show is a safe form of travel.

The A330 8220;is the workhorse of the industry. Every day,24/7,an A330 takes off somewhere in the world,8221; Leahy said at the air show.