Eight more bodies of the passengers on the crashed Air France jetliner have been found, raising the total number of the recovered bodies to 24, Brazil's military said on Monday.

The bodies were found in an area some 440 kilometers northeast of the Sao Pedro and Sao Paulo Islands where the water depth reaches 3,500 meters.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz, spokesman for the Air Force, the recovered bodies and wreckage are being taken first to a military staging area at the Fernando de Noronha islands, and then to the northeastern coastal city of Recife for identification.

Right now, finding the bodies of the plane's 228 occupants is the top priority of the search crew, the spokesman said.

The military also recovered a large tail section from the jetliner, helping narrow the hunt for "black boxes" that could reveal the cause of the disaster.

A total of 255 soldiers from the Brazilian Air Force and 570 from the Navy have participated in the search work. Some 14 Brazilian and French aircrafts and five ships were also involved in the operation.

The jetliner, an Airbus 330-200 carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew members, went missing early Monday after losing contact with the control tower on a flight to Paris from Rio de Janeiro.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2009)