The search by the Brazilian military for bodies from the Air France crash off the coast of Brazil was called off in late June after over a week had past without finding any more bodies, although wreckage was still being spotted.

In all, search teams found 51 of the 228 people who died when Air France Flight 447 plunged into the Atlantic on 1 June, including one of the flight crew and one cabin crew.

They also found more than 600 parts and structural components of the Airbus A330-200, along with luggage, but the key ‘black box’ voice and data recorders had still not been located as at press time. Time is fast running out despite an intensive search using sophisticated acoustic devices aboard a French submarine and two high tech rigs being towed by French tugs.

The firm which makes the recorders, Honeywell Aerospace, told CNN it has a 100 per cent recovery record from air accidents. Honeywell said it was hard to estimate how much battery life the locator beacon on the recorders had, as it depended on the conditions, but it is typically around 30 days.

Without the recorders it will be difficult to determine the exact cause of the crash, which currently broadly centres around a likely mid-air break up of the plane. Experts have stated that the condition of the bodies and pieces of the wreckage found to date show no indication of an explosion and the bodies indicate the passengers died before hitting the water, which all support the mid-air break up theory.

The international team of experts analysing the crash believe it may have been caused by a cascade of system failures, possibly beginning with malfunctioning airspeed sensors, causing the flight computer to think the plane was about to stall thus speeding it up to the point where it started to break up.

If fly-by-wire systems are found to be the cause of the crash, the ramifications for the entire airline industry would be severe as both Boeing and Airbus are churningout fly-by-wire aircraft.