Crashed plane's black boxes found

Search teams have found the two black boxes of a Boeing 737 that crashed into the rainforest of northern Brazil killing all 155 aboard, the armed forces said.

Investigators hope the flight recorders will help explain why the Brazilian GOL airliner and a business jet touched in midair over a remote area of northern Brazil on Friday.

The incident sent the Boeing crashing to the ground, but the seven people on the smaller Embraer Legacy jet escaped unharmed after the pilot made an emergency landing with a damaged wing.

Meanwhile, seven relatives of GOL Flight 1907's victims were flown to the crash site, where soldiers battled humidity, heat and dense vegetation to recover the bodies of the 149 passengers and six crew members who perished in Brazil's worst-ever air disaster.

By Monday afternoon, officials had only reported the retrieval of two bodies by military crews who rappelled down to the crash site from helicopters.

A French national was among the victims. Four young children and an 11-month-old baby were also on the ill-fated plane.

Brazilian soldiers hacked out a clearing for helicopters to land at the crash site, where military authorities said debris was spread over at least 20 square kilometres.

The Boeing 737-800 crashed to the ground as it flew from the Amazon city of Manaus to the country's capital Brasilia. Officials indicated the jet airliner plummeted nose first.

A team from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was scheduled to arrive in Brazil to assist with investigations, Brazilian officials said.

- AFP