Brazil calls off search for Air France victims

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-27 11:10

SAO PAULO: Brazil's Air Force and Navy on Friday called off the search for additional victims and wreckage from Air France Flight 447, which crashed over the Atlantic on June 1 carrying 228 people.

Brazil calls off search for Air France victims

Relatives and friends mourn Lucas Gagliano, who died when Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic on June 1, during his funeral in Rio de Janeiro June 25, 2009. [Agencies]

French officials have given no indication they are ending their own search efforts. To date, authorities have recovered 51 bodies as well as 600 pieces of wreckage from the Airbus A330-200 jetliner.

Brazilian Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz said the military was unlikely to find additional bodies and wreckage in the search area so many days after the crash.

"It's already been nine days without seeing any bodies," Munhoz said in a televised news conference.

Brazilian Navy Captain Giucemar Tabosa said French navy ships will remain in the area looking for beacon signals from the plane's voice and flight data recorders, the so-called black boxes.

The cause of the crash is unknown, and there is still no sign of the black boxes, which could give vital information about why the plane went down.

Weather and distance from the coast have complicated search efforts from the outset, and officials have said it will be difficult to find the black boxes.