June 8, 2009 9:17:00 pm
Sixteen bodies now have been recovered from the debris of an Air France jet that plunged into the Atlantic nearly a week ago,as investigators probe whether a defective speedometer caused the tragedy.
Fifteen more bodies were snatched from the waves 1,150 kilometers off Brazil’s northeastern coast on Sunday,when search teams battled “unfavourable” weather conditions to recover other bodies spotted floating among seats and other plane debris,Brazilian military officials said.
“Dozens of structural components” from the Airbus A330 were also picked up,air force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz told reporters in Recife,a coastal city in northeastern Brazil.
The latest finds followed the recovery on Saturday of the first two bodies from Air France flight AF 447,which came down early June 1 with 228 people on board. The plane left from Rio de Janeiro to Paris a week ago,on May 31.
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The bodies were to be taken by ship to Brazil’s Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha from where they would be flown to Recife for identification,Munhoz said.
On Saturday,the bodies of two men were the first to be recovered by Brazilian navy personnel from the zone located 1,150 kilometres from Recife.
The 15 others were taken from the water on Sunday by teams from a Brazilian frigate and a French navy ship involved in the operation.
Of those 15 bodies,four were men and four were women. The gender of the others had not yet been determined.
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