In one of the largest diver-assisted salvage operations ever conducted, over 95% of the airplane wreckage was eventually recovered.

They have also been deployed for retrieving airplane wreckage or the black box flight recorders in crashes, as well as in the Challenger shuttle explosion.

Just during the race at Martinsville searchers patrolling the nearby Bull Mountain's peak found airplane wreckage on the summit.

"Debris field three," for example, is understood to mean the southwestern-most area in which airplane wreckage settled on the ocean floor.

In June, while at Kossol Passage, in the Palaus, she was directed to put to sea to search for reported airplane wreckage.

It can see things that are anomalous in the vegetation such as metal or something from an airplane wreckage.

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Francis answered "no" when asked whether chemical residue from an explosive material had been found on airplane wreckage.

Working for the Navy, he specialized in bringing up pieces of airplane wreckage.

Reportedly his airplane wreckage was found near the same location.

Small pennants were to be placed by the remains and the pieces of airplane wreckage, investigators said, on the chance that the pattern would reveal something about the crash.