An airplane seat, orange buoy, spill of fuel, and other plane debris has been located along the pathway of the missing Air France flight off the coast of Brazil. So far no signs of life have been spotted, though Brazil says that commercial ships in the area will join the search. A ship capable of deep-sea exploration will also be dispatched.

The pilots spotted two areas of floating debris — but no signs of life — about 60 kilometers (35 miles) apart, about 410 miles (650 kilometers) beyond the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, near Flight 447′s path from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, said Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.

“The locations where the objects were found are toward the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted,” Amaral said. “That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis.”

Amaral said some of the debris was white and small, but did not describe it in more detail.

Two commercial ships that joined the search late Tuesday morning reached sites where the debris was found, said a Navy spokeswoman. They were searching for the items spotted by the plane while the third was still en route, said the spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department rules.

“Once they come across the objects, they will be analyzed to determine if they are parts of the plane or just junk,” she said.

A United States Navy P-3 surveillance plane arrived in Brazil this morning in case additional assistance is required. Reports yesterday indicated that the U.S. was providing help in the search through its network of satellites and listening stations. Furthermore, a defense source tells the Associated Press that the Pentagon may provide unmanned underwater vehicles to search for any debris no longer on the surface.

The chance of finding survivors now? “(V)ery very small, even nonexistent,” according to the French Transportation Minister. France has also dispatched mini-subs to assist in the search.

Hopefully the search area can be narrowed down, as he clock is ticking. Even forgetting the emotional impact on family members, black boxes can only emit signals for 30 days. The field of search is, as of now, said to be larger than Europe.