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An inquiry has begun into the cause of Monday's disaster, but the scattered and sunken remains of the jet will have to be recovered before the hundreds of grieving relatives across the world can expect any answers.
In particular, investigators will want to get a hold of the Airbus A330's black box flight data recorders, which may be lying in ocean waters as deep as 19,700 feet and 500 kilometres from land.
The crash is the worst in the airline's history with 228 people on board.
The director of the French air investigation agency, Paul Louis Arslanian, said he was "not totally optimistic" the boxes would be recovered from the "deep and mountainous" place into which they are thought to have sunk.
"We can't rule out not finding the recorders," he told a news conference in Paris, adding that even if they are found there is no guarantee the speed and altitude data and cockpit recordings would be enough to solve the mystery.
A naval mission was launched after the debris was spotted off Brazil's coast, and ships heading to the zone are carrying two mini-submarines, the best hope of tracking down the boxes, which ought to emit a location signal.
The first of Brazilian vessel was to arrive early on Wednesday, joining three cargo ships from France and the Netherlands that were rerouted to the area.
A Brazilian air force plane with night-vision sensors has been sweeping a zone 500 kilometres northeast of Brazil's Fernando do Noronha archipelago, itself 400 kilometres from the mainland, officials said.
Another three air force aircraft were to be deployed after dawn, when visual sweeps would also be made for signs of bodies.
Defense Minister Nelson Jobim confirmed that the spot in Brazilian waters was the crash site of the Air France Airbus A330, and a spokesman for the French general staff confirmed this.
"The operation is now changing from being an aerial mission covering a vast expanse of the ocean to a naval operation focusing on a much more limited area," Captain Christophe Prazuck told AFP.
The wreckage extinguished any lingering hopes of finding survivors and confirmed the worst civil aviation accident since 2001, when an American Airlines jet crashed in New York killing all 260 people on board.
The flight was four hours into its 11-hour voyage from Rio de Janeiro to Paris when it broadcast automatic warnings indicating multiple electrical and pressurisation failures and ceased contact with controllers.
The pilots did not issue a distress call.
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In india no govt is equipped to cope with any disaster / tragedy. Indians rely on private support hugely and trust in 'forgive n forget' philosophy. here reactions happen no responses.
Intolerant Indians as I see in this comments, comes from the disadvantage of judgment and improper communication flow. At least we hold people responsible and do not gulp down everything that is given to us. That ways at least someone somewhere is accountable- otherwise, it would have been another communist state. And @ KAY: PERCEIVED INJUSTICE is your perception too. You sound like one too much in love with being judged on your skin color or your lingo. Good for you. Doesn't work with everyone.
Facts: Storms were not extraordinary (per weather channel) The problem was centered around the electrical system. It appears that there was a total failure, leading to a very quick and violent end for the flight. Planes today are OVERDESIGNED for electrical safety (ask anyone who works in the industry) lightning could not bring down the electrical system. Similarly they are structurally OVERDESIGNED for the worst storms (in fact clunky P3's regularly fly through hurricane walls with no detrimental effects - the AIRBUS engineers add another order of magnitude in terms of structural integrity - so please, enuff of "the storm did it" BS) They are NOT designed to reject an EMP that exceeds those typically encountered in everyday life - i.e. the EMP from a fission reaction could damage the electrical system by overloading the Transorb Diodes in the grounding system. This is a plausible explanation. Let the investigators determine the where and why if this is the case. RUMOR ALERT: There is a rumor floating around that the Russian on board was an FSB agent, and was bringing some "stuff" back to Moscow, that certain people did not want found, indicating a timed device took the plane down. Rumor continues with speculation that an EMP device was used. I hope that is not true because that is an aviation Achilles heel that only aviation engineers (and state security agencies) know about . Let the conspiracy nuts have their day. I am waiting for the black box data, but would not be surprised if they do not find it, and this one gets relegated to "cold case" speculative status in a very short time.
If this happened in India people would have burnt a couple of buses and trains and stoned the air line office and blamed everyone and everything.We can never understand that such tragic things happen and it has to be borne stoically like how these people have done.A while ago Indians were protesting about some perceived injustice by air france.I hope these same people introspect and get their perspectives right.Never.Thats what makes us unique Indians.
A lot of research work is yet to be done on air routes and safety and severe weather conditions.
Even after 72 hours of such a great tragedy the people who have got affected have not made a hue and cry for the Govt not being able to reach the wrekage site.If the same had been in India... the govt would have been eaten up by the public and the media.S