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The naval operation a day after the debris was spotted off
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The first of the Brazilian naval vessels was to arrive early Wednesday, joining three cargo ships from
A Brazilian air force plane fitted with night-vision sensors has been sweeping the zone some 500 kilometers (300 miles) northeast of Brazil's Fernando do Noronha archipelago, itself 400 kilometers from the mainland, officials said.
Another three air force aircraft were to be deployed after dawn, when visual sweeps would also be made for signs of bodies.
Defense Minister Nelson Jobim on Tuesday confirmed that the spot in Brazilian waters was the crash site of the Air France Airbus A330.
"There are no doubts" a five-kilometer strip of floating debris -- including cables, plane components and fuel slicks -- marked the spot where the full flight went down, he told reporters.
A top French military official on Wednesday made similar comments.
"While formal confirmation must still be obtained by recovering debris and carrying out technical analysis, there is no longer any room for doubt," Captain Christophe Prazuck told AFP.
The evidence extinguished any lingering hopes of finding survivors and confirmed the worst civil aviation accident since 2001, when an American Airlines jet crashed in
The flight was four hours into its 11-hour voyage from
The pilots did not issue a mayday distress call, leaving the accident a mystery -- one that only the planes black boxes can elucidate, if they can be found in Atlantic waters as deep as 6,000 meters (19,700 feet).
A team of BEA officials were already at work in
Any human remains located would be taken by ship to
More than half of those traveling on the Air France jet were either French or Brazilian. The others came from 30 countries, mostly in
The 216 passengers included 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby. The crew comprised 11 French nationals and one Brazilian.
The 58-year-old French captain had been flying for Air
Air
However, such strikes can prove dangerous when coupled with other problems, such as violent turbulence.
Other theories advanced by experts include pilot error, mechanical defects or even the possibility of terrorism.
"No hypothesis is being favored at the moment," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday.
A French ship was on its way to the zone, carrying two mini-submarines capable of operating at depths of 6,000 meters, which is also the limit aircraft black boxes can survive for up to 30 days.
But any recovery would be extremely difficult, not only because of the depth, but also because of powerful currents and storms in the zone.
"To find the plane, you’ll need ships equipped with a special sonar, and possibly also rescue submarines -- its an enormous undertaking," Commander Ronaldo Jenkins, safety coordinator for