Mourners of the German victims of Air France flight 447, which went down over the Atlantic off the northeastern coast of Brazil two weeks ago, have gathered in the city of Dusseldorf for a memorial church service.

Among the around 300 people present were victims' relatives, public figures and politicians including several German state premieres and ministers, and the French ambassador to Germany. 28 of the 228 passengers on board the doomed flight were German.

Speaking during the service, the bishop of the Rheinland Evangelical Church Nikolaus Schneider, said that it isn't possible to make any sense of why 228 people lost their lives.

"The question of what could have caused this must be answered before wounds can begin to heal," he added, telling those present that they needed to turn to God.

Schneider was joined by auxiliary Catholic bishop of Cologne, Rainer Woelki, in leading the interdenominational service.

Still no cause

The actual cause of the crash of the Airbus A330-200 off the Brazilian coast on June 1 remains a mystery, though many experts are pointing to techinical problems.

Facing worsening weather, French, Brazilian and American teams continue to look for the plane's black box, which is most likely resting thousands of meters below the ocean's surface.

A French navy submarine with advance sonar equipment has been searching the area for the past few days.

Meanwhile, on Friday, six more bodies were found in the Atlantic near where the flight is believed to have gone down as it flew from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

This brings the number of bodies recovered in the wake of the crash to 50.

mrm/dpa/EPD/KNA
Editor: Andreas Illmer