Air France jet 'broke' in mid air

Search teams have found 400 pieces of debris but not the vital black box recorders [AFP] Bone fractures found in bodies recovered from the Atlantic suggest the Air France jet that crashed two and half weeks ago first broke up in the air, aviation experts say. A spokesman for Brazilian medical examiners told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Wednesday that fractures in the legs, hips and arms were found in autopsies on an undisclosed number of the 50 bodies recovered so far. "Typically, if you see intact bodies and multiple fractures - arm, leg, hip fractures - it's a good indicator of a midflight break up,'' said Frank Ciacco, a former forensic expert at the US National Transportation Safety Board. "Especially if you're seeing large pieces of aircraft as well," he added. Brazil's O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper, citing unnamed investigators, also said some victims of Air France AF 447 were found with little or no clothing, and had no signs of burns. That lack of clothing could be significant, Jack Casey, an aviation safety consultant in Washington DC, told AP. "In an in-air break up like we are supposing here, the clothes are just torn away.'' Casey also said multiple fractures were consistent with a midair breakup of the plane, which was cruising at about 10,500m when it went down. "Getting ejected into that kind of windstream is like hitting a brick wall - even if they stay in their seats, it is a crushing effect,'' Casey said. "Most of them were long dead before they hit the water would be my guess.'' 'Less fuzzy' With more than 400 bits of debris recovered from the ocean's surface, the top French investigator into the crash expressed optimism on Wednesday about discovering what brought down the Airbus A330-200 on June 1. Search teams are considering ending their operations next week [AFP] But Paul-Louis Arslanian, who runs the French air accident investigation agency BEA, told a news conference outside Paris that the conditions in which recovery efforts are continuing were "one of the worst situations ever known in an accident investigation". He said French investigators were beginning to form "an image that is progressively less fuzzy". "We can say there is a little less uncertainty, so there is a little more optimism." But he cautioned that "it is premature for the time being to say what happened". Brazil's military said the search was becoming increasingly difficult in bad weather and a tentative date of June 25 has been set for stopping recovery efforts. Search teams have yet to find the aircraft's flight data and voice recorders, commonly known as black boxes. The boxes are thought to be deep under water and will send out an electronic tapping sound for just two more weeks.