The French air accident investigation agency says a $16 million search effort has failed to find the remains of Air France Flight 447, a year after it crashed in the depths of the Atlantic.

Alain Guildou of the BEA investigation agency said Tuesday that the search ended Monday. He said "it did not allow us to locate the wreckage of the airplane."

Workers unload debris from the crashed Air France flight AF447, from a Brazilian frigate in the port of Recife, northeast of Brazil, on June 14, 2009. Workers unload debris from the crashed Air France flight AF447, from a Brazilian frigate in the port of Recife, northeast of Brazil, on June 14, 2009. (Eraldo Peres/Associated Press)

The BEA is not commenting further on the search, or on whether there could be another search effort at a later date.

All 228 aboard the flight, travelling from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, died when it crashed June 1. An initial search last year failed to find the plane's black box flight recorders that could explain what happened.

The renewed search effort began in March.