Air France bodies had broken bones

PARIS, June 19 (UPI) -- Some bodies recovered from the June 1 Air France crash had broken bones, suggesting the plane broke apart in midair over the Atlantic Ocean, authorities say.

British medical examiners told French investigators bodies from Flight 447 had broken arms, legs and hips, and few had clothes, CNN reported.

The Brazilian newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo, quoting unnamed investigators, reported that almost all of 50 bodies examined had fractures similar to injuries caused by falls from great heights.

Few victims had head injuries they would have suffered had the plane nose-dived into the ocean, the newspaper said.

Some bodies also had lesions in mucous membranes, usually caused by asphysia, O Estado de Sao Paulo said.

Another Brazilian newspaper, the Jornal do Brasil, quoted an unnamed British military source as saying bodies were "mutilated" and had no clothes, which would point to depressurization caused by a structural rupture of the plane.

Investigators are trying to determine the cause of the crash of the plane, which was heading from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris when it crashed into the Atlantic, killing 228 people.