Debris removed from the Atlantic is not from the airplane of Air France, says Aeronautics

19:30h Debris recovered from the Atlantic are not from Air France plane , says Air Force

The FAB (Brazillian Air Force) informed this Thursday evening that the debris collected from the Atlantic this Thursday is not from the Air France Airbus A-330 , that disappeared last Sunday (31) with 228 people onboard.

According to Brigadier General Ramon Borges Cardoso , director of Decea ( director of the Air Space Control Department) , "there was no material from the plane that was collected".

"No , no material from the plane was collected. What we saw were materials belonging to an airship that were left behind because of the priority for the search of bodies. But , till this moment , no piece of the airship was recovered" , affirmed.

According to Ramon , the oil stain sighted was also not from the airship. "Such a great quantity found could not have come from an airplane", he said in Recife. According to him , though , the fuel sighted is from an airplane. "The fuel has the most probability of coming from an airplane. What was discarded was the oil."

The Brigadier said , though , that the searches will continue in the region, and will be reinforced in the weekend, with the arrival of new airships and ships sent by France.

Today, a piece of 2,5 squared meters and two floats were salvaged from the waters of the Atlantic , around 13h. According to the Air Force , the object was sighted 550km off Fernando de Noronha (PE) by the plane C-130 Hércules of FAB. Later , though , the Navy affirmed that the pieces brought no identification from the Air France Airbus-A330 .

The brigadier denied that the searches have come back to stake zero. "No. We all have calculations made of the areas. Because taking into consideration the speed of the current , we know exactly where these debris should be. And this has been confirming itself. Because all planes we used on these calculations , everywhere , we ended up sighting their debris" , he said.

According to him, even though the pieces collected today are not from the Airbus , the Air Force still defends that the debris sighted around the region are from the plane that did flight 447.

Nineteen passengers were employees and partners of a French electrical firm who had won a holiday for hitting sales targets

Another three were Irishwomen in their 20s who trained together as doctors, including a former member of the famed Riverdance dance troupe

A 25-year-old descendant of Brazil's long-defunct royal family was also on the passenger manifest