But what caused the Airbus A330 to crash with 228 people on board will remain amystery - unless searchers can locate the plane's black box data and voice recorders, likely burieddeep in the middle of the ocean.
Two high-tech devices from the U.S. Navy that can detect emergency beacons to adepth of 20,000 feet are being flown to Brazil on Monday with a U.S. Navy team, according to thePentagon. They will be delivered to two French tugs that will listen for transmissions from theboxes.
Bodies recovered Sunday raised the total to 17, after pilots participating in agrid search found 15 corpses in an area about 45 miles from where the jet sent out messagessignaling electrical failures and loss of cabin pressure.
The first two bodies were found Saturday. Authorities also announced that searchersspotted two airplane seats, debris with Air France's logo, and recovered dozens of structuralcomponents from the plane. They had already recovered jet wing fragments, and said hundreds ofpersonal items believed to be passengers' belongings were plucked from the water.
France is leading the investigation into the cause of the crash, while Brazilianofficials are focusing solely on the recovery of victims and plane wreckage.
There is "no more doubt" that the wreckage is from Air France Flight 447, BrazilianAir Force Col. Henry Munhoz said Sunday.
Brazil's military was not releasing detailed information about other bodies ordebris spotted from the air after it was criticized last week for mistakenly identifying sea trashas a cargo pallet from the plane.
Flight 447 disappeared and likely broke up in midair in turbulent weather the nightof May 31.
The search is focusing on a zone of several hundred square miles roughly 400 milesnortheast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.
Brazilian authorities have refused since the search began to release the precise coordinates ofwhere they are looking, except to say the area lies southeast of the last jet transmission andcould have indicated the pilot was trying to turn around in mid-flight and head to the islands.
