The ocean location of the Air France plane crash victims could provide answers to whether the doomed jet broke up in the air, experts said.

Crews searching for the wreckage of the Air France jet which crashed in the Atlantic have found a key part that could tell experts why the plane went down, Brazil’s air force said today.

Venezuelan investigators are picking through the shattered wreckage of a plane that crashed with 160 people on board, trying to determine what caused the engines to fail and sent the jet plunging from the sky in the country’s deadliest air disaster in history.

A plane carrying holidaymakers crashed today in western Venezuela after reporting engine problems, killing all 160 people on board, officials said.