Air France – Pilots aboard Brazilian military aircraft spotted an airplane seat, a life jacket, some metallic debris and signs of fuel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, as the search continued for signs of the Air France jet that disappeared on Sunday.

It hasn’t been confirmed yet that the debris is from the Air France plane; however, the location of the objects is in the area where the last signal of the plane was given off. Air Force spokesman, Jorge Amaral, suggests that it may have been trying to make a turn to possibly return to Fernando de Noronha, a Brazilian island. But, he added “that is just a hypothesis.” It was more than 24 hours after the disappearance of the plane when the discovery was made. There are no signs of survival.

Air France Debris Spotted in Atlantic Ocean

Rescuers are still scanning a large area of the ocean between northeastern Brazil to off West Africa, as investigators try to determine what caused the Airbus 330 to go down. Possible causes could include violent winds and hail from thunderstorms or lightening. However Jean-Louis Barloo, French minister overseeing transportation said the A330 is “one of the most reliable planes in the world” and that “there had to be a succession of extraordinary events to be able to explain this situation.”

The plane’s “black boxes,” which may offer clues as to what occurred, could be in thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean. They only emit signals for up to 30 days so the race is on to recover them. If there are no survivors, this catastrophe would be the world’s worst aviation disaster since 2001.