MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Flight 447: Brazil identifies 11 of 50 bodies recovered

Search for bodies and debris continues but the black boxes are still to be located

Officials in Brazil have identified the first 11 of 50 bodies recovered from the Air France Flight 447 disaster in which 228 people died three weeks ago. The bodies were those of 10 Brazilians and one male foreigner, officials said. They gave no further details

The Airbus A330 plunged in the Atlantic on 1 June. The data recorders have not been found, and the cause of the crash remains a mystery. Search teams from several countries are still scanning the search area.

With the help of a French nuclear submersible and US sophisticated sonar equipment the area is being swept to try and pick up underwater signals from the black (orange) boxes in the Atlantic Ocean sea bed.

Investigators are reviewing the bodies and debris at a base set up in the northern Brazilian city of Recife.

Five of the victims were identified as Brazilian men, five as Brazilian women and one as a “foreigner of the male sex”, local officials said on Sunday.

Speculation about what caused the plane to go down between Rio de Janeiro and Paris has so far focused on the possibility that the airspeed sensors, known as pitot tubes, were not working.

The plane is known to have registered inconsistent speed readings just before it crashed in turbulent weather.