The Brazilian Navy clarified on Monday that searchers so far have only found and retrieved 16 bodies, not the previously-announced 17, from the Atlantic Ocean near the area where an Air France passenger plane with 228 aboard was believed to have crashed.

The military said on Sunday that a total of 17 bodies had been recovered, but admitted on Monday that there was a miscalculation.

According to Navy Spokesman Gilcemar Tabosa, the mistake was not detected until the French frigate Ventose started to transfer the bodies it had retrieved to a Brazilian ship. The French vessel only collected seven bodies, not eight as previously thought.

Tabosa also denied reports that two more bodies were recovered on Monday morning.

All the bodies recovered are now on the Brazilian Navy frigate Constituicao, which will reach Fernando de Noronha archipelago, the search team's base of operations, on Tuesday.

From the archipelago, the bodies will then head to Recife, the Pernambuco state capital, where the identification process will begin. Authorities have collected samples from the relatives of those aboard Air France Flight 447 to perform DNA tests.

A total of 14 aircraft and six ships have participated in the search efforts, which continue through the night. The Brazilian Air Force R-99 plane, equipped with radar, keeps on sweeping the region to find other possible debris points.

According to the Navy, though weather conditions in the region are unstable, the search is not being impaired.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday that the Brazilian government will do everything in its reach to find the bodies of all 228 occupants of the plane, which is very important to the victims' families.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2009)