RECIFE, Brazil — Days after Air France Flight 447 vanished, an intensive international effort has failed to recover any confirmed wreckage, and concern grew Friday about whether searchers were even looking in the right place.
Brazilian officials reported Tuesday that military pilots had spotted wreckage from Flight 447 scattered across the ocean’s surface, but pieces pulled out Thursday turned out to be unrelated to the plane.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Ramon Cardoso insisted Friday that at least some of the debris spotted from the air — an airplane seat, a slick of kerosene and other pieces — are from the plane that vanished Sunday with 228 people on board. The Brazilian air force also distributed images pinpointing where the material was found.
“This is the material that we’ve seen that really was part of the plane,” Cardoso said.
But officials said poor visibility has hampered efforts to guide ships to the spot where the debris was sighted, and French Transportation Minister Dominique Bussereau said his own country’s searchers have found no signs of the Airbus A330.
“French authorities have been saying for several days that we have to be extremely prudent,” Bussereau told France’s RTL radio. “Our planes and naval ships have seen nothing.”
Airbus has said the French agency investigating the crash found that the doomed flight received inconsistent airspeed readings by different instruments as it struggled with severe turbulence in a massive thunderstorm.
The cause of the crash might be hidden on black-box voice and data recorders that could lie miles deep on the ocean floor. French officials have warned the boxes might never be found.
