Buddhist monks offer prayers for victims of Air France Flight 447

Bodh Gaya, June 4 (ANI): Buddhist monks and nuns here offered prayer for the victims of Air France Flight 447, which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday night en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 passengers on board.

Devotees also joined the monks and nuns in their prayer meet, who were seen praying at the premises of the Mahabodhi Temple.

"The incident that happened in Brazil was very unfortunate. Around 200 people died. None of the passengers would have thought that they would meet such a fate while boarding the flight, but unfortunately such thing happened. So the only thing we can do is to pray for the dead because prayer is such a powerful thing, which no money or weapon can replace if we truly believe in it," said Bhane Priyepal, a Buddhist monk.

Search crews flying over the Atlantic found debris from a crashed Air France jet spread over more than 55 miles of ocean on Wednesday, reinforcing the possibility it broke up in the air.

Experts said extreme turbulence or decompression might have caused the Airbus A330 to splinter.

Air force pilots searching the area have reported no signs of survivors.

Officials said recovering the bodies might be extremely difficult. (ANI)