RIO DE JANEIRO - SOME Brazilian relatives of those lost on the Air France plane that disappeared over the Atlantic were on Friday taken to an air force base where search efforts are being led, officials said.
The group of 10 relatives was flown from their Rio de Janeiro hotel to the base in the northeastern city of Recife, where a morgue has been set up to identify any human remains found from the crash site.
After a brief visit, they were flown back to Rio. None of them spoke to the media.
The director of air traffic control in Recife, Brigadier Ramon Cardoso, told reporters the group conversed with a pilot involved in the visual search for debris.
One of the relatives, Nelson Farias, whose son was on the flight, said before the visit that the group wanted 'to see how the search operations are going, how the searches are being carried out. It's important for us to see that.'
Although Farias said he also wanted to be taken to Brazil's Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, which is serving as a forward base for the navy and air force operation at sea, the group was not flown there.
The search and recovery operations 1,000 kilometers off shore were now concentrating on finding and recovering plane debris, after a fruitless search for bodies or survivors.
Air force aircraft on Tuesday and Wednesday were said to have spotted a seat from a plane, cables and other components, and a big chunk of what appeared to be fuselage.
Defence Minister Nelson Jobim said the items came from the Air France plane.
Air France flight AF 447 disappeared early Monday, as it was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board. The cause of the accident is unknown. -- AFP
