Perpignan (France): There is no hope of finding survivors from the Air New Zealand Airbus A320 jet that crashed into the Mediterranean sea during a test flight, a French official said.
The jet crashed in the sea near the French city of Perpignan from where it had taken off, and emergency services said that while two bodies had been recovered, another five people were still missing.
But Dominique Alzeari, assistant prosecutor at Perpignan, told reporters there was "no hope of finding survivors".
The wreckage was spread over several hundred metres, a regional government official told AFP.
The jet, built in 2005, had been leased to German charter firm, XL Airways, since 2006. Airline spokesman Asger Schubert said the two pilots in the jet were German and worked for XL Airways Germany.
The regional prefecture said the five other people on board were New Zealanders.
Yesterday, a major rescue operation was launched with a surveillance plane, two rescue helicopters and five coastguard vessels scouring the seas around the crash site about 2.5 kilometres from the shore.
About 20 specialist frogmen were taking part in the operation.
The French navy sent ships to the zone in a bid to find the wreckage and find the black box flight recorders.
The jet had been undergoing servicing at EAS Industries in Perpignan and had been flying circuits for 90 minutes before it crashed, an emergency services spokesman said.
