Air France wreckage searchers recover six bodies and reinforces the theory that the plane disintegrated in the air

Six more bodies from last week’s Air France crash have been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean by the French ship Mistral as the hunt for victims and debris continues amid bad weather conditions, the Brazilian military said today.

The six are in addition to the total of 44 bodies already recovered and will be transferred to a Brazilian ship, Brazil Navy Vice Admiral Edison Lawrence told a news conference today in Recife.

The search for wreckage from the May 31 crash concentrated today in a spot about midway between Brazil and Senegal, as authorities held out hope there may still be a chance of recovering more bodies near the site where the Airbus SAS A330- 200 last reported its position. A total of 228 passengers and crew were aboard the plane.

“Technically, there are possibilities of recovering bodies up to 20 days after the accident,” Ramon Borges Cardoso, a Brazilian Air Force brigadier said. “Of course, that depends on other variables.” He didn’t elaborate. The search will continue for as long as there are still chances of finding more bodies, he said.

According to the daily, the absence of burns indicates that the Air France Airbus did not explode, and reinforces the theory that the plane disintegrated in the air. The daily also stated that most bodies were found without clothes, which could have been taken by the wind during the fall.

A total of 840 military from the Brazilian Air Force and Navy participate in the search efforts for the Flight 447.