The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 5/11/09 Section: News

Members of the Brazilian Pelican military squad prepare to departure from Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, to take part in the search of an Air France jet that disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean, Monday, June 1, 2009. Air France flight 447, carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, ran into a towering wall of thunderstorms and disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean. French President Nicolas Sarkozy told families of those aboard Monday that "prospects of finding survivors are very small." (AP Photo/Walbe, Correio do Estado)

FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil (AP) - Brazilian military pilots spotted an airplane seat, an orange buoy, and other debris and signs of fuel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday as they hunted for a missing Air France jet that carried 228 people.

Brazil's Navy said three commercial ships in the area were joining the search and France said it would send a ship capable of deep-water exploration.

The pilots spotted two areas of floating debris - but no signs of life - about 60 kilometers (35 miles) apart, about 410 miles (650 kilometers) beyond the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, near Flight 447's path from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.

"The locations where the objects were found are toward the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted," Amaral said. "That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis."

Amaral said some of the debris was white and small, but did not describe it in more detail.

Two commercial ships that joined the search late Tuesday morning reached sites where the debris was found, said a Navy spokeswoman. They were searching for the items spotted by the plane while the third was still en route, said the spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department rules.

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