Three more bodies found after plane disaster

Three more bodies were found in the Atlantic today, near the spot where an Air France jet is believed to have crashed a week ago, bringing the total number of bodies plucked from the water to five.

Brazilian authorities said pilots searching the ocean also spotted an undetermined number of additional bodies from the air and are sending ships to recover them.

Flight 447 disappeared in turbulent weather on May 31 during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people aboard – all are now presumed dead.

The investigation is now focusing on whether external instruments 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 air-speed instruments on the plane had not been replaced as the manufacturer had recommended, but warned it was too early to draw conclusions about what role this may have played in the crash.

The agency, BEA, said the plane received inconsistent air-speed readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.

In Brazil, military officials could not immediately provide information on how many more bodies were spotted from the air, saying today that ships should be able to recover some of them within hours despite rainy weather and poor visibility.

None of the bodies recovered today had documents with them to indicate their identities, and authorities did not specify their gender. The first two bodies, found yesterday, were men.

The bodies were found about 45 miles from the site where the jet sent out a burst of messages indicating it was experiencing a series of electric failures and losing cabin pressure. All the bodies have been recovered and spotted in the same general area.

Authorities also announced that searchers spotted two plane seats and other debris with Air France’s logo.

They declined to comment on the condition of the bodies that were recovered, saying the release of that information would be too distressing for relatives.