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Brazilian navy divers rushed on Wednesday to reach the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 and start pulling debris from the Atlantic Ocean, where the plane with 228 people went down. It was the airline's worst disaster in its 75-year history. 
 
Four navy ships with recovery equipment and a tanker were headed to a 5-kilometer strip of water strewn with plane seats, an orange buoy, wiring, hunks of metal and jet fuel stains about 1,200 km northeast of the coastal city of Recife. 
 
"I can confirm that the five kilometers of debris are those of the Air France plane,’’ Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters at a hushed news conference in Rio. He said no bodies had been found and there was no sign of life. 
 
Distraught relatives who had prayed for a miracle gave up hope as experts were certain that all aboard died on the flight, which left Rio de Janeiro on Sunday night bound for Paris. 
 
"I just want to find my son's body so that he can have a dignified burial," said Aldair Gomes, the father of Marcelo Parente, who was the head of the Rio mayor's cabinet. 
  
Rear Admiral Domingos Nogueira said the navy was battling tough weather in its effort to reach the crash site.  "The ships are equipped to arrive and pick up pieces of the Airbus," Nogueira said. "Each ship has two divers on board and smaller ships to throw into the ocean to try and get pieces."  

Helicopters would then be used to take wreckage of the Airbus A330 from the ships to a base on the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, 700 km away. 

The hardest task may be finding the flight data and voice recorders that hold clues to why the plane fell out of the sky during a severe storm in the middle of the night. Officials said they could be on the ocean floor at a depth of 2,000 to 3,000 metres. The recorders are designed to send homing signals for up to 30 days when they hit water. 

Reuters, AP