Air France 447: body search called off; black box hunt intensifies

The search was called off on Friday after nine days of search by 12 planes and 11 ships producing no sightings of the remaining passenger bodies of the doomed flight 447.

Speaking to the press in the city of Recife, Brazilian air force Col. Henry Munhoz called this the most complex and largest search and rescue mission at sea the Brazilian military has ever embarked on, and said locating any more bodies was "impossible."

"The technical reason for calling off the search was the impossibility of locating more bodies, which was the main objective of the operation," said Munhoz.

After four weeks of search and recovery operation only 51 bodies have been recovered from the crash site in the Atlantic Ocean.

The last victim's body was recovered on 17 June, nine days before the search was eventually called off.

"Despite our desire to recover the 228 people, we are fully confident that the navy and air force did the best they could," Munhoz said in the press conference.

From the 51 bodies recovered so far, 11 have been identified. The identified bodies include that of the flight Captain and a steward. Ten of the eleven bodies were Brazilians and the eleventh was that of a Britain from Scotland, who was named as Graham Gardner, 52, from Gourock in Inverclyde.

The identification of Gardner was confirmed by the Scottish company Subsea 7, where Gardner worked.

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