Brazilian search teams have found more pieces to the puzzle of where AirFrance Flight 447 went after it disappeared off radar last week and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean.

A large section of the plane’s tail was found, as were the bodies of 24 of the 228 people aboard the doomed flight, so far, about 600 miles northeast of Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha islands. The U.S. is also helping in the search; the Navy is sending equipment and manpower to search for the still-missing flight-data recorders, which could hold vital clues as to what exactly caused Flight 447 to fall from the sky. Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said his government is doing everything it can to recover all of the bodies — no survivors are expected — "because we know what it means for a family to recover their loved ones."

Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that residents of the French village of Ermenonville — known as "AirFrance Village" because so many of its 1,000 residents work for AirFrance — are in mourning after learning that three of the female municipal leaders prominent around town are missing with the plane. The mayor told a local French newspaper, "You cannot expect things like that, and it weighs on us."