RIO DE JANEIRO, June 8 (RIA Novosti) - Brazilian and French planes and naval vessels, involved in the search for traces of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean last week, have recovered 16 bodies, rescuers announced on Monday.
Flight 447 bound from Rio de Janeiro to Paris disappeared on June 1 four hours after it took off. All the 228 passengers and crew on board are presumed dead in the crash, the worst in the airline's 75-year history, and the world's worst for almost a decade.
Two bodies were discovered on Saturday some 900 kilometers from the Fernando de Noronha archipelago northeast of Brazil and approximately 70 kilometers from where the plane sent its last message.
Another 14 bodies were found in the area on Sunday. Earlier reports said 15 bodies were discovered. The recovered bodies are being taken to the Brazilian island group before being transferred to the mainland.
The flight recorders from the Airbus 330 have yet to be recovered and the search is becoming urgent as the black boxes will only continue to broadcast a locator signal for the next three weeks.
Meanwhile, French investigators have said a possible cause of the crash may have been faulty airspeed-monitoring instruments. The sensors may have malfunctioned when the plane flew into a storm.
