17 bodies recovered from Air France flight

RECIFE, BRAZIL: Seventeen bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of Air France flight 447, a Brazilian military spokesman said on Sunday.

"Dozens of structural components" from the Airbus A330 were also picked up, air force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz told reporters in Recife, a coastal city in northeastern Brazil. (Watch)

The bodies were to be taken by ship to Brazil's Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha from where they would be flown to Recife for identification, he said.

The bodies of two men were the first to be recovered by Brazilian navy personnel on Saturday from the zone located 1,150 kilometers (715 miles) from Recife.

The 15 others were taken from the water on Sunday by teams from a Brazilian frigate and a French navy ship involved in the operation. Of those 15 bodies, four were men and four were women. The gender of the others had not yet been determined.

Air France flight AF 447 was traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it met with catastrophe four hours into an 11-hour flight. The cause of the disaster is not yet known. The plane's black boxes have not yet been located.