RIO DE JANEIRO, June 27 (RIA Novosti) - The Brazilian Navy and Air Force has ended efforts to find more bodies or debris from the Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic almost four weeks ago.
"We wanted very much to find the bodies of all 228 people on board, but we have to accept that the Air Force and the Navy have done everything they can," Brazilian Air Force Col. Henry Munhoz said on Friday at a news conference.
Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris lost contact with ground controllers about four hours after it took off on June 1, when it was over the Atlantic Ocean about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off Brazil's northeast coast.
In more than three weeks of searching, 51 bodies were found, but none have been recovered for nine days.
The Brazilian military contributed 12 aircraft and 11 ships to the search. France, Spain and the United States also took part in the operation, and the French will continue to lead efforts to recover the aircraft's flight data recorders, which could help determine the cause of the crash.
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