More debris from an Air France jet that came down in the Atlantic has been spotted, but investigators are pessimistic about finding the black boxes that could explain the tragedy.
The vast area over which the new debris was found has led some experts to suggest the plane exploded before it hit the water.
According to a report in French newspaper Le Monde, the "wide dispersion of wreckage discovered suggests that the Airbus (A330-200) exploded at high altitude".
The experts, who were not named, said the plane most likely broke up after a "massive depressurisation" in the cabin. If this happened, most of the 228 people on board the ill-fated flight would have lost consciousness instantly.
The new debris was found overnight by a Brazilian air force plane fitted with a special sensor. Ten items were found, some metallic — including an object 7m in diameter — and a fuel slick 20km long, spokesman Colonel Jorge Amaral told reporters.
The extra debris was found 90km south of the spot where planes found objects including a airline seat, a life-vest and cables the day before.
Amaral said 11 aircraft were now scouring the area, some 600km northeast of Brazil's Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, itself located 400km from the mainland. A plane from France and another from the United States were also involved in the sweeps.
Five Brazilian navy vessels were on their way to join three cargo ships already in the zone, with the first to arrive today to begin debris-recovery efforts.
No bodies were found, Amaral said.
He added that, despite the evidence of destruction, the air force continued to "work with the hypothesis of survivors — up until we find and identify bodies that indicate that it is technically impossible that anyone survived."
Brazil's government, though, has declared three days of national mourning for those on board Air France flight AF 447.
The Airbus A330 was carrying 228 people — most of them French or Brazilian — when it came down on Tuesday, four hours into its 11-hour voyage from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
The pilots issued no distress call, but the plane sent automated messages over three minutes suggesting it had been damaged or was breaking up.
In Paris, services were held in their memory overnight. French President Nicolas Sarkozy — who said the prospects of anyone surviving the accident were "very slim" — attended a ceremony in Notre Dame cathedral with passengers' families.
France is leading the inquiry started into the cause of the disaster, but it looked far from certain that the plane's black boxes could be recovered from the rugged bottom of the Atlantic, in waters as deep as 6000m.
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.
Two officials with the French agency were already in Brazil handling the early stages on the probe.
Among other ships heading to the debris zone is a French research vessel carrying two mini-submarines, the best hope of tracking down the boxes, which ought to emit a location signal.
If final confirmation comes that all those on board the Air France plane perished, it would be the worst disaster for the French airline in its 70-year history.
It would also be the worst civil aviation accident since 2001, when an American Airlines jet crashed in New York killing all 260 people on board.
The 216 passengers on Air France flight AF 447 included 126 men, 82 women, seven children and a baby.
The crew comprised 11 French nationals and one Brazilian.
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