Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, right, has said the prospect of finding survivors was 'slim' [AFP]
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, right, has said the prospect of finding survivors was 'slim' [AFP]
The wreckage, which has still not been confirmed to be parts from Air France Flight 447, includes metallic objects and aircraft seats.
Brazilian military aircraft have sighted wreckage 650km off the country's northern coast that could be part of an Air France jet that went missing on Sunday night, Brazil's air force says.
Earlier, pilots from Brazil's largest airline said they had spotted what appeared to be fire in the Atlantic Ocean.
Brazilian aircraft equipped with sensors are continuing to sweeping a part of the ocean where the airliner is thought to have disappeared.
'No trace'
Jose Alencar, Brazil's vice president, confirmed the earlier reports from Brazil's TAM airlines.
"A TAM airlines plane from Brazil supposedly saw something on fire in the Atlantic Ocean. This was an aeroplane that landed today," Alencar said on Monday.
But a French merchant ship conducting a search of the area where TAM reported seeing fire did not identify "any trace of the flight", the French military said on Tuesday.
The Air France jet, an Airbus A330-200, was carrying 228 people on its route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it is believed to have vanished in a severe thunderstorm on Monday.
Authorities said they are still trying to determine what caused the accident, but that they fear there is no chance of finding survivors.
Jean-Louis Borloo, the French environment minister, said officials did not believe the craft could have been brought down by something as simple as a bolt of lightning, which previous reports had suggested.
"There really had to be a succession of extraordinary events to be able to explain this situation," he told RTL radio.
He said "the race against the clock has begun" to find the aircraft's two black boxes, which emit signals for up to 30 days.
Search and rescue
The Pentagon said on Monday it had dispatched a surveillance aircraft and a search and rescue team to help Brazilian and French aircraft.
The Air France passenger jet, pictured here in January, was flying from Brazil to France [AFP]
France has also asked Washington to use its spy satellites and listening posts to help with the search.A French military aircraft dispatched from Senegal, a west African country on the Atlantic seaboard, has also been searching the area.
Officials said the search was centred on an area more than 1,100km off the Brazilian coast and while search aircraft have managed to fly over the area, the first navy ships are not expected to arrive until Wednesday.
Air France said the 216 passengers from 32 countries comprised 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby. There were also 12 French crew members on board.
More than half of the passengers were either French or Brazilian.
Electrical failure
Flight AF447 had encountered a severe thunderstorm before sending an automated message saying that its electrical system had failed at 02:14 GMT on Monday.
The plane lost radio contact over the Atlantic while flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris
Pierre-Henry Gourgeon, Air France's chief executive, said "several electrical systems had broken down".
"It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came," he said at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where the flight had been due to land.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, told relatives waiting for their loved ones at the airport that "the prospects of finding any survivors are very slim".
"It's a catastrophe the likes of which Air France has never seen," he said.
If confirmed that all 228 people on board are dead, it would be the worst loss of life in Air France's history and civil aviation's worst accident for more than a decade.
According to the Brazilian air force, Brazilian military aircraft have found wreckage of an airplane in the , about 650 kilometres off the northern coast of Brazil.

The wreckage is suspected to have come from Air France Flight 447, a passenger jet that went missing over the Atlantic Ocean on June 1.

The debris includes airplane seats and metallic objects. Pilots from TAM, a Brazilian airline had earlier said they saw what they perceived to be a fire in the Atlantic, but French officials say that no sign of wreckage had been found.

Brazilian airplanes with sensors are currently scanning the area of the ocean where the debris was found.

"A TAM airlines plane from Brazil supposedly saw something on fire in the Atlantic Ocean. This was an aeroplane that landed today," said Jose Alencar, the Brazilian vice president.

Air France Flight AF447 was an Airbus A330 carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members that disappeared after it went into a severe thunderstorm. Authorities are not yet certain what caused the incident, but are pessimistic as to whether any survivors will be found.