Memorial Mass Held For Irish Air France victim

A memorial mass has been held in Roscrea for Dr Aisling Butler, one of the Irish passengers on the Air France jet that crashed last week.

The 26-year-old was a native of Ballinakill in Roscrea.

Ms Butler and her two friends, Jane Deasy from Dublin and Eithne Walls from Northern Ireland, were all passengers on the plane that disappeared while travelling from Rio De Janeiro to Paris.

Crews searching for the wreckage of the Air France jet, which crashed in the Atlantic, have found a key part that could tell experts why the plane went down.

Investigators are looking at the possibility that external speed monitors called Pitot tubes had iced over and gave false readings to cockpit computers in a thunderstorm.

Eight more bodies were found, bringing the total recovered to 24 since Flight 447 disappeared on May 31 with 228 people on board.

So far, wreckage and the bodies have been found about 400 miles north east of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast, and about 45 miles from where air traffic controllers last heard from the jet.

The trail of debris being discovered is hoped to be leading investigators closer to the black box instrument, which is expected to reveal the final moments of the plane.

(DW/JM)