THE laptop and boarding pass of a British oil executive have been found in the wreckage of the Air France that vanished over the Atlantic.

But Arthur Coakley's wife Patricia said she will not be flying out to Brazil, even if her husband’s body is identified among those already recovered.

She said: “I just want to remember him smiling and laughing. He was a wonderful man.

“We are just in limbo and still waiting for the phone call we will get from the authorities, but don’t want.

“We cannot plan anything at this time until we get more news. But I don’t want to fly out to Brazil.”

Mr Coakley was onboard the A330 Airbus Flight 447 which vanished en route from Rio to Paris on June 1 with 228 people on board, including five Britons.

Wreckage and a total of 41 bodies have so far been found in the Atlantic, about 400 miles north-east of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil’s northern coast. Working out where the victims were seated and studying their injuries might help explain what brought down the jet as it flew into a thunderstorm.

Crash theories being considered include the possibility that external speed monitors iced over and gave dangerously false readings.

But the ‘‘black box’’ flight recorders, which could give the answer, are still missing.

Mrs Coakley said a local police liaison officer called at the family home in Sandsend, near Whitby, North Yorkshire, to say her husband’s laptop and boarding pass had been found.

She said: “The family are bearing up brilliantly and I am trying to lead by example.”

She praised the support locally and worldwide from her Middlesbrough-born husband’s friends and business contacts which she said had been a great comfort.

Mrs Coakley had spoken to her husband by phone shortly before he boarded the plane. He had planned to take an earlier flight, but it was fully booked.

He should have been in Brazil for two weeks on business and home on May 19, but was delayed.

She has been married to her husband for 34 years and the couple have three children Dominic, 31, Patrick, 29 and Mise, 25.

Mr Coakley, 61, was a structural design engineer and partner in the PD&MS firm based at Aberdeen.

He had many working contacts on Teesside and was also a director at Wilton Engineering Services based in Middlesbrough.

The first bodies from the plane were brought to land by helicopter and were today being flown to the coastal city of Recife, Brazil, for identification.

Police will collect genetic material to help identify the bodies.