French investigators said on Wednesday that they are "getting closer" to understanding what caused the crash of Air France flight 447 over the Atlantic two weeks ago.

"Considering all the work that has been done and all we have at our disposal, I think we may be getting a bit closer to our goal," said Paul-Louis Arslanian, director of the Investigation and Analysis Bureau (BEA) in charge of the technical inquiry into the disaster. "The goal is to understand what happened," Mr Arslanian told reporters at the Paris Air Show.

Mr Arslanian added that "We are doing all we can to recover the flight recorders and bodies, and we cannot say today what we will succeed in doing. It is virtually certain that we will not recover the entire aircraft."

No access to Brazilian autopsy results
The Brazilian and French navies have so far recovered 50 bodies. Although the two countries are cooperating closely, Mr Arslanian said a French pathologist sent to Brazil had not been authorised to take part in the autopsies of recovered bodies, and France had not had access to the Brazilian autopsy results.

During his televised news conference he declined to say more on the subject, but afterwards he was pressed by reporters to say if he was dissatisfied with the lack of access given to the French doctor. "I am not happy. Eventually, I hope I'll have an explanation. For the time being it is a fact and nothing more. Please don't try to create problems between France and Brazil," he said.

Patience needed
Mr Arslanian urged the public to show "a lot of patience" and to stick to known facts rather than engage in speculation. But he admitted that getting more facts largely depends on finding the plane's flight data recorders or "black boxes". The seabed where the plane is thought to have crashed is uneven, meaning the wreckage could be lying at a depth of anything between 1 km (0.6 miles) and 4 km, investigators say.