Sean Goldman Custody Battle Not Over Yet...Brazilian Kin Sues

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Brazilian Kin To Fight To Get Boy Back From U.S.


The Brazilian family of a 9-year-old boy returned by court order to his U.S. father said Tuesday it will fight to regain custody.

Lawyers for the Brazilian relatives of Sean Goldman said they will push forward with a request from his Brazilian grandmother to allow the boy to make his wishes known in court.

The request was initially denied, but the Supreme Court has not issued a final ruling. The highest court doesn't convene until February.

David Goldman brought Sean back from Brazil on Christmas Eve after a Supreme Court decision following a five-year international custody dispute. The boy's mother, Bruna Bianchi, took Sean to her native Brazil in 2004, divorced Goldman and remarried. Goldman began legal efforts to get his son back.

After Bianchi died last year in childbirth, her husband, Paulo Lins e Silva, continued the legal fight and won temporary custody. A ruling last week by the chief justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court finally cleared the way for the boy's return.

NBC News paid for Goldman's charter plane from Rio de Janeiro back to the U.S. The father and son stayed with relatives in Orlando, Florida, and return to Tinton Falls, N.J., on Monday.

At a news conference Tuesday in New Jersey, Goldman and his attorney, Patricia Apy, said they did not know exactly what sort of claim the Brazilian family would make.

Apy said continued litigation by the Brazilian relatives could affect visitation proceedings in New Jersey.

"Part of what we're going to wait to see is if they're going to exercise good judgment and move forward as normal grandparents," Apy said.

Goldman said his son arrived in New Jersey on Monday and was eager to play outside, even in the cold New Jersey wind. The boy is likely go to public school, though he has not yet been enrolled.

"He hasn't cried, he's just happy," Goldman said. "He just wants to have fun and not have all this pressure on his shoulders."

Visitation Rights

Apy said details still need to be worked out for conditions of visitation for the boy's family in Brazil.

Goldman said he doesn't want to deny them access to the boy the way they kept him away.

There could also be legislation to address other International Abduction cases.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who traveled to Brazil with Goldman several times, is pushing a bill that would allow the U.S. to impose sanctions on countries that don't comply with an international treaty on how to handle similar abduction cases.

There are about 2,800 such cases worldwide involving children from the U.S., officials say.

"Checkbook Journalism"

Also Tuesday, a professional media group criticized NBC for ferrying the Goldmans back to the United States on a chartered plane.

Calling it an example of "Checkbook Journalism," the Society of Professional Journalists said the arrangement damages the network's credibility.

NBC spokeswoman Lauren Kapp said the network invited them to ride on a plane that had already been booked to carry its own employees home for the holidays, and "TODAY's" exclusive interview was booked before the invitation was extended.

An attorney for Goldman said Tuesday that there was never a contract with NBC and that the Goldman camp was loyal to the network because it did a thorough report on his situation a year ago, before the story became major news.

"There was no Quid Pro Quo," Apy said, adding that some other media outlets suggested favors in return for access, and that Goldman turned them down.

She said Goldman accepted the flight in part because of fears that multiple camera crews might be onboard if they flew back to the U.S. on a commercial flight.



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David Goldman & Son Sean Head Home To New Jersey

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N.J. Father David Goldman and Son Fly Home From Brazil



A U.S. congressman said a New Jersey man and his 9-year-old son left Brazil today at the end of a five-year International Custody battle.

Rep. Chris Smith said David Goldman and the boy, Sean, are on their way to the United States on a charter plane.

They left Rio de Janeiro about three hours after the boy's Brazilian relatives handed him over at the U.S. consulate today.

Brazil's Supreme Court chief justice two days ago had ordered the boy handed over to Goldman.

The pair were expected to fly back to the Goldman's home in New Jersey within hours.

David Goldman, of Tinton Falls, has been trying to gain custody of his son again since his ex-wife took the 9-year-old to her native country. But family members and child psychology experts are concerned that Sean's re-acclimation to life in the United States may be a difficult one.

Leslie Goldman last saw her nephew dashing around with his cousins at a backyard birthday party five years ago, about a week before he was taken to Brazil by his mother.

When the 9-year-old eventually returns to New Jersey, she said she doesn’t expect the same Sean to step off the plane. "I’m sure it’s not going to be all smooth sailing, and I know we’ll have some help with that," Leslie Goldman said Wednesday of the boy’s re-adjustment "It won’t be easy, but it will be easier than having him there."

On Wednesday, the bitter five-year battle to regain custody of Sean, by his father David Goldman of Tinton Falls, neared conclusion when the child’s Brazilian family halted its legal efforts as a court-ordered deadline for delivering the boy loomed.

A Federal court in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday gave the boy’s Brazilian family until 9 a.m. today to return Sean to his father.

But even after all the legal victories David Goldman has had in the long custody battle, the boy’s relatives in New Jersey remained guarded.

"We’ve come really close many times," Leslie Goldman said. "I’ve been down this road before so it doesn’t feel like anything until he really comes home."

Both the U.S. and the Brazilian governments have said the matter fell under the Hague Convention, which dictates children who are abducted should be returned to their "habitual residence" custody should go to the parent in the country where the child orignally lived -- for Sean Goldman, the United States.

The boy, whose mother died last year in childbirth, has lived in Brazil with his stepfather and other relatives. His maternal grandmother said yesterday Sean was upset by the decision and wants to remain in Brazil.

"We think we’re truly at the end of this ordeal," U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.), who traveled to Brazil to support David Goldman, said in an interview Wednesday from a Marriott hotel in Rio de Janeiro, where the congressman has been camped out for several days with Goldman and a team of his attorneys. "We have no reason to believe it will not be enforced."





The seemingly endless court battle may be over, but transporting a boy primarily raised in Brazil to live with relatives he may not fully remember in New Jersey will add its own traumas, according to child therapists.

Children under the age of 5 usually retain few memories, so the boy’s recollections of his family and experiences here are likely be very limited, said Lawrence Shampain, a child psychiatrist at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Adjusting to a new culture and language will make his re-introduction to life in the U.S. significantly more difficult than most family or marital separations, which can often include weekend visitations or vacation time spent between relatives, he said.

"In divorce, usually there’s some contact in the relationship, but this is really a complete break, so it’s everything to the extreme," Shampain said. "He might experience more anxiety, maybe depression."

In addition to the loss of his father and relatives in New Jersey, the boy recently dealt with the death of his mother in Brazil, Shampain noted. The psychological impact of transporting him to New Jersey could be very similar to that of an adoption, he believes.

Ideally, Sean Goldman will be able to sustain a relationship with his family in Brazil, provided the family is able to move beyond the hostility of a drawn-out legal battle, said Peggy Brady-Amoon, a psychologist who teaches in the graduate counseling program at Seton Hall University.

"Children do well when the adults in their lives are able to communicate," Brady-Amoon said. "We know this from children who have thrived despite their parents’ divorces."

If the boy is given enough space to build up trust with his new family, "the fact that he’s young will likely be to his advantage," she added. "Giving him time to play, to reflect, to talk about it at his own pace, will help him transition well. Children are extremely resilient."

There will likely be struggles ahead for David Goldman, too, she said. Sean may not be as affectionate or trusting as his father initially hopes, and it could take a long time to re-establish their relationship.

"He doesn’t really know his son, and his son doesn’t know him," Shampain agreed. "He doesn’t know his son’s habits, he doesn’t know his son’s likes and dislikes, who this nine-year-old is."

Yet friends insist David Goldman is willing to do what it takes. He sat in his hotel room for hours yesterday, checking his e-mail on a laptop for updates from the U.S. Embassy in Brazil, anxiously awaiting his son with a plastic bag filled with Christmas presents, they said.

"I know first-hand this is a loving and caring father who will make sure he does everything he needs to do for Sean," said Mark DeAngelis, a friend who lives in Holmdel. "He just wants to spend time to rebuild his relationship with his son. And Sean’s got his grandparents, aunts and uncles here, too -- I think he’ll be fine."



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New Jersey Dad Wins Battle With Brazilian Courts

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Brazilian Court Orders Boy Returned to N.J. Dad


A Brazilian Supreme Court has made a decision that is being called a "win" for a New Jersey father hoping to be reunited with his young son after a five-year custody battle.

David Goldman, who has pledged to fight for his son, Sean, as long as it takes, was still holding out hope of being reunited in time to celebrate the holidays with him in the United States.

A judge in Brazil today refused the child's grandmother's Habeus Corpus appeal to the Supreme Court, paving the way for Sean to return home.

At his hotel room in Brazil, Goldman said he was relieved but repeated again and again "when do we get to leave?" "When will it be over?"

"Hopefully this is a changing of the guard (in Brazil) and we have made a difference," he said.

A lower court had already ordered that Sean be handed over to his father.

Lawyers for both camps said Sean's Brazilian relatives could still again appeals -- but it was questionable whether that court would be willing to review the case if the Supreme Court backs a lower federal court ruling awarding custody to Goldman.

New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, in Brazil to support Goldman, expressed optimism earlier this week.

"I think it is only a matter of when and not if, and we are hoping that the abductors will convey this young boy ... as soon as the chief justice renders his decision," the Republican congressman said.

Goldman, 42, launched his case in U.S. and Brazilian courts after Sean was brought by his mother in 2004 to her native Brazil, where she then divorced Goldman and remarried. She died last year in childbirth, and the boy has lived with his stepfather since.

The lawyer for the boy's Brazilian family offered to negotiate a settlement, and the family also invited Goldman to spend Christmas with them. Goldman has not said whether he would accept the invitation if the case was not resolved this week.

The case has affected diplomatic ties between Brazil and the U.S., reaching talks between President Barack Obama and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. A U.S. senator, reacting to the case, has blocked the renewal of a $2.75 billion trade deal that would lift tariffs on some Brazilian exports.

The U.S. Department of State pressed for the boy to be returned. But a Brazilian Supreme Court justice last week stayed a lower court decision ordering Sean to be turned over to his father.

Goldman and Brazil's attorney general filed appeals asking the Supreme Court to overturn the justice's decision to block Sean's return while the court considers hearing direct testimony from the boy.

The Brazilian family's lawyer, Sergio Tostes, told the AP he would like to see a negotiated settlement, saying he wanted to end the damage being done to Sean and to U.S.-Brazil relations.

But Goldman said that as the child's only surviving parent he wasn't interested in shared custody.



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Brazilian Court Orders Abducted Boy Returned To US

An appeals court in Brazil on Wednesday ordered the return of a 9-year-old New Jersey boy to his father after a five-year custody battle between the boy's American father and Brazilian mother. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

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Dad calls it Abduction. David Goldman talks with TODAY’s Meredith Vieira about testifying before Congress about what he considers a case of international child abduction.

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Brazil Court rules for U.S. dad seeking custody


A Federal Appeals Court ruled Wednesday that a 9-year-old boy living in Brazil should be returned to his American father, but the case will likely be appealed again, officials said.

A panel of three Brazilian judges ruled the boy must be handed over to his father, David Goldman, at the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro within 48 hours, said Ricardo Zamariola, Goldman's attorney.

"He's really happy but he is worried about any eventual future decision that could block the boy being handed over to him," said Zamariola, who added that he didn't expect a final resolution until at least the first half of next year.

Goldman's lengthy court battle to get custody of his son, Sean, has gained international attention as President Barack Obama, the U.S. Congress and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have all weighed in, seeking the child's return.

Clinton said she was pleased to hear the latest court decision. "It is my hope that this long legal process is now complete and that the Goldman family will be reunited quickly. They will be in my thoughts and prayers today and throughout this holiday season," she said in a statement.

The decision by the Federal Appeals Court in Rio de Janeiro upheld a Brazilian federal judge's earlier ruling.

Stepfather likely to Appeal

But Zamariola said he was certain lawyers for Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, the Brazilian stepfather with whom Sean is living, would appeal, perhaps to the Supreme Court.

Lins e Silva's attorney, Sergio Tostes, declined to comment.

Goldman was not present for the ruling Wednesday and didn't return a request for comment made to his U.S.-based attorney, Patricia Apy. Zamariola said he spoke with Goldman and that he was expected to arrive in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday morning.

The case began in 2004, when Goldman's wife, Bruna Bianchi, took then-4-year-old Sean to her native Brazil. Goldman says it was to be a two-week vacation.

But she stayed and so did the boy. She eventually was divorced there and remarried. Last year, she died giving birth to a daughter.

Goldman, who lives in Tinton Falls, N.J., had already been seeking his son's return under an international treaty that covers cross-border child abductions.

Bianchi's death generated more interest in the case, which has been discussed this year by top-level diplomats in Washington and the Brazilian capital, Brasilia. It also has been the subject of congressional hearings in the U.S. and has prompted protests in both countries.

Previous rulings favorable to Goldman have been scuttled by other Brazilian courts.

It's outstanding news

But U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, who has traveled to Brazil with Goldman and held congressional hearings on the issue, said he was optimistic Sean would soon be in the U.S.

"It's outstanding news," the New Jersey congressman said of Wednesday's ruling. "Even if there is an appeal, the order is to deliver Sean to the Embassy Friday."

Meanwhile, Sean's Brazilian maternal grandmother has said that Sean wants to stay in Rio. She has filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking that the boy's statements be taken into consideration. A similar request from the Brazilian family was denied earlier this year. The child, who has dual citizenship, has been shielded from speaking directly to the news media.

Both Goldman, a former model who now has a fishing charter business, and members of Bianchi's family, including her second husband, have appeared on television talk shows to make their case.

Goldman and his son reunited in February for the first time since the child was taken to Brazil. They have not seen each other since June.



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Rio De Janeiro Celebrates Its Win For 2016 Olympic Games...Chicago Weeps

(Rio De Janeiro wins bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.)

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(In losing its bid for the 2016 Olympics, the Chicago contingent appears to have been outdone in insider politics. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.)

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Rio de Janeiro Wins 2016 Olympics Vote


Finally, South America gets an Olympics. The 2016 Games are going to Rio de Janeiro.

In a vote of high drama, the bustling Brazilian carnival city of beaches, mountains and samba beat surprise finalist Madrid, which got a big helping hand from a very influential friend.

Chicago was knocked out in the first round – in one of the most shocking defeats ever in International Olympic Committee voting. Even Tokyo, which had trailed throughout the race, did better – eliminated after Chicago in the second round.

Rio spoke to IOC members' consciences: the city argued that it was simply unfair that South America has never hosted the games, while Europe, Asia and North America have done so repeatedly.

"It is a time to address this imbalance," Brazil's charismatic president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, told the IOC's members before they voted. "It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country."

The bearded former union leader disappeared into a huge group hug with the joyous Rio team after IOC president Jacques Rogge announced that the city won. Football great Pele had tears in his eyes.

Madrid's surprising success in reaching the final round came after former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch made an unusual appeal for the Spanish capital, reminding the IOC's members as he asked for their vote that, at age 89, "I am very near the end of my time."

Samaranch ran the IOC for 21 years before Rogge took over in 2001.

Chicago had long been seen as a front-runner and got the highest possible level of support – from President Barack Obama himself. But he only spent a few hours in the Danish capital where the vote was held and left before the result was announced. Former IOC member Kai Holm said that the brevity of his appearance may have counted against him.

The short stopover was "too business-like," Holm said. "It can be that some IOC members see it as a lack of respect."

Senior Australian IOC member Kevan Gosper surmised that Asian voters may have banded together for Tokyo in the first round, at Chicago's expense.

"I'm shocked," Gosper said. "The whole thing doesn't make sense other than there has been a stupid bloc vote."

He worried that the shock exit could do "untold damage" to the already testy relations between the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee. They had recent flare-ups over revenue sharing and a USOC TV network.

"To have the president of the United States and his wife personally appear, then this should happen in the first round is awful and totally undeserving," Gosper said.

The European-dominated IOC's last two experiences in the United States were marked by controversy: the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were sullied by a bribery scandal and logistical problems and a bombing hit the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Obama had held out the enticing prospect of a Chicago games helping to reconnect the United States with the world after the presidency of George W. Bush. He told the IOC earlier Friday that the "full force of the White House" would be applied so "visitors from all around the world feel welcome and will come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people."

Now, Chicago can only rue what might have been. And Obama's gamble of expending his own political capital on the bid backfired.

The last U.S. city to bid for the Summer Games, New York, did scarcely better. It was ousted in the second round in the 2005 vote that gave the 2012 Games to London.

Tokyo did better than many expected by reaching the second round. It had offered reassurances of financial security, with $4 billion already banked for the games.

But the fact that the Olympics were held only last year in Asia, in Beijing, handicapped the Japanese capital's bid.

Its plans for a highly compact games, sparing athletes tiring travel by holding all but the shooting within 5 miles of the city center, were technically appealing. But the bid failed to generate real enthusiasm, even in Japan. Tokyo had the lowest public backing in IOC polls.

Tokyo's final presentation Friday to the IOC, while smooth and heartfelt, lacked the buzz that the Obamas and Rio generated. In short, Tokyo was simply overshadowed, failing to convince IOC members that it really wanted or needed the games.



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Air France Tragedy: Brazilian Prince Dead! What Happened On Board Flight 447? Pilots Overwhelmed, Error Messages....Why?

(MSNBC reports on the Air France, Flight 447 tragedy. Some bodies have been found.)

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Telegraph.co.uk----

Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris began as an ordinary flight across the Atlantic, carrying passengers from 32 nations. But it ended in disaster.

Just 24 hours after celebrating their marriage with an extravagant Balinese-themed reception for 300 guests, Bianca Cotta and Carlos Eduardo de Melo set off for honeymoon in France at the start of a new life together.

The attractive couple from prominent Brazilian families, already rising stars in the legal and medical fields, had every reason to believe a wonderful future awaited them as they boarded Air France flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on the evening of Sunday, May 31.

Mr de Melo, 33, was a lawyer and Miss Cotta, the only child of one of the country's top engineering professors, was a dermatologist who last year graduated top of her class at medical school.

But by the time reports and pictures of their "fairytale" wedding made the society pages the following morning, the newly-weds were presumed dead, along with the other 214 passengers and 12 crew on board the doomed Airbus 330.

"The party was beautiful," said Cris Castelo, the wedding organiser and friend of the bride. "Despite the tragedy, at least they had one day with the people that they most loved in life. May they now rest in peace."

There was no hint of anything out of the ordinary as the plane took off at 7.30pm and rose into the already dark skies, leaving behind Rio's world-famous beaches and Sugar Loaf Mountain with its towering white statue of Christ, arms spread wide.

On board was a cross-section of humanity, more than half from Brazil and France but from 30 other nations as well - five Britons and three Irish among them. The passengers included a Brazilian prince, an 11-year-old boy returning to boarding school in England, a renowned conductor en route to a concert in Ukraine, European holidaymakers, students, academics and business executives, including the head of Michelin South America. A group of French salesmen had won a trip to Brazil for their performance, and a German was making a whistle-stop trip home to collect documents he needed to marry the Brazilian woman he had recently fallen in love with.

For about three hours the plane, under the command of Capt Marc Dubois, 58 - one of Air France's most experienced pilots with 11,000 flying hours under his belt, including 1,700 on this type of Airbus - flew north-east along the coast of Brazil.

The passengers ate their evening meals, selected from French wines to wash the food down, and then flicked between the in-flight movies - a past and present selection from the Cannes Film Festival - in the seat-back video or dozed off as the 11-hour overnight flight proceeded uneventfully.

The plane headed out into the Atlantic and one of three pilots sent the final sign-off from Brazilian air space at 22.33 after leaving behind the tropical archipelago of Fernando de Noronha. In the cockpit, Capt Dubois, married with two adult children, may have been talking about his latest home renovation plans. He was due to retire soon but told friends he loved the job so much, "I could work until I'm 70".

It is not known whether he or one of his two co-pilots was at the controls when they sent a message that they had encountered heavy electrically-charged tropical storms at 11pm. Nor is it known whether they discussed taking a detour to try to skirt the violent combination of lightning, ice, winds and updrafts of up to 100mph in the thunderclouds that spin up from the churning ocean waters to heights of 50,000 ft.

Such storms are common across the equator, in an area known by meteorologists as the "intertropical convergence zone", and the planes are built to survive them. But pilots will often fly far out of their way to avoid them, if only for the comfort of their passengers.

The towering clouds show up on radar and that night a Lufthansa crew in the area at a similar time steered through the turbulent skies while an Iberia pilot took a 30-mile detour to avoid turbulence and storms.

Flight AF447, however, ploughed into the middle of the buffeting winds, lightning and ice of the storm. Nervous flyers were doubtless already alarmed while even their more sanguine peers were probably preparing to tell stories about some of the worst turbulence they had encountered.

But beginning 10 minutes later, at 11.10pm, when the autopilot was disengaged, a barrage of 24 automated messages sent back from the plane's computer system to Air France headquarters charted the catastrophic failures of computer and electrical systems during its final desperate four minutes.

Faced by this onslaught of malfunctions, the three men in the cockpit frantically battled to keep control of their craft. It was a struggle they rapidly lost.

Finally at 11.14pm, with the pilots overwhelmed by the cascade of calamities, came the signal of complete electrical failure and "vertical speed" alert as all cabin pressure was lost – a strong indication for investigators that the plane split apart before spiralling down 35,000 feet in pieces through the storm. A report filed by a Spanish airline captain flying in the same area at the time said that he and his co-pilot saw a bright flash of white in the distance plunge into the ocean, although no connection has been proved.

Still the subject of conjecture is the cause of this disastrous chain of events, although the first strong clue came in a memo issued by Airbus on Thursday night to all airlines operating its 330 model.

It reminded pilots of the need to maintain appropriate speeds and angles for the plane when flying in adverse weather - too slow and the plane will stall; too fast and it could break up. For, according to leaks from the investigation, flight 447 was flying too slow for the conditions.

And the automated messages have revealed that all three external air speed sensors were giving different readings for the plane's velocity, diverging by up to 35 miles per hour – leaving pilots and on-board computer confused over what information to follow.

In previous crash investigations, it has emerged that sensors iced up in severe weather, despite being electrically heated. And moisture sucked up from the ocean by the 100pmh updrafts would have turned to heavy ice by the time it reached the plane's altitude.

French investigators also said on Saturday that Airbus had recommended last year that airlines flying the A330 should replace the sensors but that Air France had not changed the instruments, known as Pito tubes, on the plane that crashed. The day before, the airline said it had begun to replace Pitot tubes on its Airbus fleet.

But Paul-Louis Arslanian, the chief investigator, warned against "jumping to conclusions", saying that the sensors had not been shown to be at fault for the disaster and planes could fly safely with the old systems.

What can also only be conjecture is the terror that the passengers and crew must have felt during those final four minutes of the flight. But as the lights flared and failed, alarms sounded and the plane pitched and weaved horrendously, it can only have been horrific.

Some would have screamed in panic; other clutched hands with friends, lovers, even strangers, in mute shock and fear.

The 300 passengers on board a Qantas Airbus 330 whose flight computer put the plane into an unprovoked 650-ft dive last October can vouch for the terror of such an incident. More than 100 of the 300 on board were injured, some seriously, as passengers not wearing were seatbelts were sent hurtling around the cabin before the pilots overrode the computer and regained control.

Investigators probing last week's tragedy will also be studying whether there are any similarities with the Qantas Airbus malfunction, when the flight-control computer followed faulty information about the plane's wing angles, and ignored accurate data. It was the fourth, and most serious, such problem to occur on an Airbus 330.

The air forces of three countries last week scoured the churning equatorial waters of the mid-Atlantic, at first in the faint hope of finding survivors and later seeking bodies or any sign of wreckage. Naval vessels are also arriving in the search zone.

Nine Brazilian aircraft, including three Hercules, a US Navy Orion P-3 maritime patrol plane and French Falcon 50 flew out of the military air base in Natal, in Brazil's far north-east, leaving at 3am each morning to reach the main search area by daybreak.

For the airmen who returned in the sultry heat of the afternoon, the first few days of overhead sweeps were frustrating. "Water, just water, that's all we saw," said a Brazilian crewman after his Hercules landed on Friday.

Circling just 1,000 ft above the churning equatorial waters, the crews struggled to pick out debris from white-crested waves and tricks of the light as glaring sunlight and thick storm clouds alternated overhead.

The salvage operation took a serious blow on Thursday, two days after Brazilian defence minister Nelson Jobim confidently asserted that his country's search planes had spotted a debris field and an oil slick from the lost plane.

A Brazilian Lynx helicopter picked up the first piece of suspected AF 447 wreckage, a wooden cargo pallet, only to establish that the plane had carried no such items.

But on Saturday evening there appeared to be a breakthrough when the Brazilian air force announced that the first two bodies from the downed plane had been recovered, along with a seat and luggage. Details including a serial number from the seat and an Air France ticket claimed to have been found inside a leather case were being passed to Air France in Paris for confirmation that they came from the lost plane.

Yet as important as retrieving material from the surface will be for working out what went so catastrophically wrong that night, the key breakthrough would be to recover the black box and cockpit voice recorder from the bottom of the Atlantic.

The devices emit signals that can be picked up for 30 days, but to find them through 23,000 ft deep water on an ocean bed of underwater mountains and ravines is the sub-aqua equivalent of seeking a needle in a haystack.

Without black box or voice recorder, investigators may be never be able to explain why the pilots and plane were so dramatically overwhelmed.

For family and friends of Bianca Cotta and Carlos Eduardo de Melo, the only consolation may be to learn why the young couple whose marriage they had celebrated so joyously was snatched away from them just a day later.

There should have another new bride called Bianca on that flight. But as Bianca Igregas and Rodrigo Motta danced at their wedding reception in a hotel on Copacabana beach in the early hours of Sunday, they decided to postpone their departure by a day.

"The party was such fun and we were talking about the next day and what a rush we'd be in," Mrs Igregas told The Sunday Telegraph. "We knew we would not be able to relax and enjoy the next day so we decided impulsively not to fly."

That change of plans saved their lives as they too were booked to fly on AF 447. Instead, they flew on the same route on Monday.

Miss Igregas, 29, a lawyer, and Mr Motta, 32, who helps run the family car dealership, spoke to The Sunday Telegraph about their relief and sadness from Moscow, where they are now on honeymoon.

"We were in shock," Mr Motta said of the moment they heard of the missing plane. "We started crying and hugging each other."

Miss Igregas said that they were now "celebrating life, enjoying each moment. Such tragedies make you realise how you should live each moment of life intensely."

She added: "We thank God for giving us the chance of a life together. We were so moved by the story of the other Bianca, because that could have been our story."


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