Rio de Janeiro - Recovery teams pulled an additional 17 bodies out of the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil Tuesday, to bring the total number of bodies retrieved after last week's Air France plane crash to 41.

The airliner, travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board, crashed into the ocean in the early hours of June 1 about 1,300 kilometres north-east of Brazil's coast, in a region beset by rough seas and tumultuous storms, which have hindered recovery efforts.

As the Brazilian military continued to look for more bodies, 16 bodies that were recovered from the ocean over the weekend were brought to land in the Brazilian Atlantic island of Fernando de Noronha, located near the crash site. (dpa)