Bodies, debris provide vital clues about Flight 447 crash

The huge distance over which the bodies were found also suggests that the plane broke up in mid-air," the official said.

According to the official, victims' lungs did not contain water "which rules out death due to drowning."

The official also said that absence of burn marks or bomb residues on the bodies also excludes the possibility of an explosion or fire in the aircraft.

Crash investigators said the debris recovered from the site of the crash also reveals clues about the plane crash. Till date, over 150 items of debris, including part of an internal wall with two flight attendants' seats attached, oxygen masks, vertical stabilizer of the tail fin, part of a wing and some personal belongings of the passengers of Flight 447, have been recovered, but not enough to help the investigators reconstruct the aircraft which would enable them to pinpoint the cause of the crash.

However, the most important piece recovered to date is the virtually intact vertical stabilizer, which could give the French Bureau of Accident Investigations (BEA), the French air safety investigation agency, which is leading the investigation, solid clues about what prompted the crash.

A BEA official said the final automated message transmitted by Flight 447 was "cabin in vertical speed," which suggests a sudden loss of cabin pressure, either the cause or the consequence of the plane breaking up in mid-air. "The wide area over which the debris was found also suggests that the plane broke up in mid-air and not as it hit the ocean," the official said.