Debris found not from Air France, claims official

A top Brazilian Air Force official has said that debris found from the Atlantic does not belong to the Air France flight 447.

Brigadier Ramon Cardoso said that "no material from the plane has been recovered". He however added that the oil slick that was found may be from the aircraft, but a larger stream in all probability came from a ship.

For the last two days, a blind search for the black box has been going on. The French military is now saying that the priority is looking for wreckage from the plane, before turning the search to flight data recorders.

The clock is ticking on finding debris before they spread out, sink or disappear. The recorders, which could be deep under water, may never be found.

"We took a ship, the frigate Constituicao, along with a helicopter which retrieved the debris. We took them on board and it has been verified that the material did not belong to the plane. They were wood pallets that were used by ships but in this plane, there were no wood pallets," said Brigadier Ramon Cardoso, Air Force, Brazil.

Investigators are reported to be relying on a stream of automated messages sent out just before the crash, which suggested the plane's systems shut down as it flew through high thunderstorms.