Bodies and debris have been found from the Air France plane which went missing over the Atlantic, according to the Brazilian air force.

Remains were taken from the water at 11.14am (GMT) today and are now being examined, said air force spokesman Jorge Amaral.

Earlier investigators said the passenger jet which crashed into the Atlantic last week transmitted 24 error messages before disappearing off the radar.

The loss of the Airbus A330’s autopilot was among the system failures reported, they claim.

However they say it is not clear whether the system malfunctioned or was switched off manually by the pilots themselves.

The Air France Flight 447 from Rio De Janeiro to Paris sent out a series of pre-crash signals during Sunday’s flight, according to Paul-Louis Arslanian, the director of the French agency leading the crash investigation.

Fourteen of those messages were sent within the space of one minute, from 3.10am BST to 3.11am BST.

They included inconsistent speed readings and the failure of the autothrust.

Speaking at a press conference today Arslanian said errors in velocity calculations were a recurring problem on the Airbus made jets.

He said: "We have seen a certain number of these types of faults on the A330.

"There is a programme of replacement, of improvement."

He added that the A330 were safe in the meantime.

The plane was flying through an area of thunderstorms and turbulence when it disappeared from air traffic control’s radars.

However meteorologists claim the severity of the weather conditions were not exceptional.

All 228 people on board the flight, including 12 crew, a baby and seven children, are thought to have perished in the world’s worst aviation disaster since 2001.

Among the victims were were Britons, Arthur Coakley, 61, an engineer from near Whitby, North Yorkshire, and oil worker Graham Gardner, 52, from Gourock, Renfrewshire.

Orthodontist Dr Jose Souza and Alexander Bjoroy, an 11-year-old boy who held a British passport, were also on the flight.

Three Irish women - all doctors who had graduated from Trinity College Dublin - were also on the plane with a Welsh female friend.

Former Riverdance performer Eithne Walls, 28, from Ballygowan, Co Down, was travelling with her friends Aisling Butler, 26, of Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and Jane Deasy of Dublin.

International search teams continue scouring the Atlantic for the plane’s wreckage.

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