Air France had bomb threat days before crash: Airline

PARIS: Air France said on Wednesday it received a bomb threat about a flight from Buenos Aires to Paris just days before one of its planes crashed into the Atlantic with 228 people on board.

Argentine police received an anonymous telephone warning on May 27 and searched the plane before passengers boarded but found nothing and it was allowed to take off with a delay of 32 minutes, a spokesman said.

There appeared to be no link between the alert and the crash Monday of the Air France flight between Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Paris, he said.

But authorities are baffled by how a modern plane could have plunged out of the sky without giving its team of three experienced pilots time to send a mayday call.

Air France and government ministers have said bad weather and turbulence were probably behind the disaster, but have refused to rule out other causes, including terrorism.

Brazilian Air Force spokesman Colonel Jorge Amaral said on Wednesday that the newly spotted debris included "various objects" spread across a 5-km area, one metallic object 7-metres in diameter and a 20-km oil slick.

An aviation expert said the large distance between the wreckage zones might be an indication the plane broke up in the sky well before it hit the water.

Brazil has sent four navy ships and a tanker to the remote corner of the ocean, with divers on hand to salvage the pieces.

France dispatched a boat with the Nautile submarine aboard, but it was not expected to reach the zone until early next week.

French government minister Jean-Louis Borloo said the recorders were believed to be at a depth of between 3,660 metres and 3,700 metres, within reach of the submarine, but warned they would be hard to find.

"We have never recovered black boxes that deep before and ... the sea currents are powerful that far down," he said.

Arslanian said the seabed in the area was rugged. "It is practically in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where the floor is very deep and varied. It is a mountainous seascape rather than a plain," he said.

France held an ecumenical religious ceremony for relatives and friends of those on the plane at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Wednesday, attended by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

French investigators have divided into four teams to probe various aspects of the case, including a review of the plane's on board systems and maintenance record.

Paris magistrates said they would open an inquiry, a routine procedure following such large loss of life.