Days after search teams began recovering bodies from a downed Air France plane in the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. Navy officials are flying to Brazil with specialized underwater listening devices to help search for the black box recorders that could help solve the mystery of what caused the plane to crash. Brazilian and French military ships have so far recovered 17 bodies and large amounts of plane wreckage. They are continuing their search for victims and any information about the plane's failure, but lack the high-tech devices the U.S. military is bringing. Two U.S. Navy devices that can detect emergency beacons to a depth of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) are being flown to Brazil, according to the Pentagon. They will be delivered to two French boats, which will try to detect the transmission signals that plane black box recorders are programmed to give for at least 30 days. A French team is leading the investigation into what caused the Rio de Janeiro to Paris flight to crash, while Brazilian Navy boats lead the search for bodies. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his country would do its best to retrieve bodies and return them to relatives. The investigation into the plane's failure is increasingly focused on a theory that external instruments on the plane iced over, confusing speed sensors and leading computers to set the plane's speed too fast or slow.
