area . '' Jobim said currents had strewn the debris widely and that the search area had been expanded to 300 square miles . The Airbus A330 , carrying 228 people , went down about three hours after beginning what was to have been an 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris , France . No survivors have been found . Map of Flight AF 447 's flight path '' Investigators have not determined what caused the plane to crash . The flight data recorders have not been recovered , and the plane 's crew did not send any messages indicating problems before the plane disappeared . Watch as high seas hamper recovery '' The Brazilian Air Force said it found the oil slick and four debris fields Wednesday , but rain and rough seas kept searchers from plucking any of the debris from the water . Among Wednesday 's finds were objects in a circular 5-kilometer -LRB- 3-mile -RRB- area , including one object with a diameter of 7 meters -LRB- 23 feet -RRB- and 10 other objects , some of which were metallic , Brazilian Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral said . Searchers had found two debris
RIO DE JANEIRO , Brazil -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A 12-mile oil slick near where an Air France jet crashed Monday into the Atlantic Ocean indicates the plane likely did n't break up until it hit the water , Brazil 's defense minister said Wednesday . Image released by the Brazilian Air Force shows oil slicks in the water near a debris site . If true , that would argue against an in-flight explosion as the cause of the crash of Air France Flight 447 , Defense Minister Nelson Jobim told reporters . But Robert Francis , former vice chairman of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board , said the question of determining where a plane broke up `` is a very difficult one to deal with . '' He told CNN 's `` Anderson Cooper 360 '' that `` there are lots of things that cause a plane to go out of control . '' He added that extremely strong winds are not unusual near Brazil . Pilots who fly over that part of the world keep track of radar and `` are very , very wary about the weather as they go back and forth down in that