``The deep drone came up empty,'' said national transportation safety board spokesman Keith Holloway. ``They will probably not be able to resume the search until Monday evening or Tuesday.'' He had no further details of the day's search efforts.

The weather has now forced the navy to interrupt its search for the jet's so-called ``black boxes'' twice in the week since it crashed, setbacks that have severely hampered progress toward determining the cause of the disaster.Officials still have few clues to why the Cairo-bound Egyptair Boeing 767-300 crashed into the Atlantic on Sunday, killing all 217 aboard, and have been anxiously awaiting the recovery of the devices.

Investigators hope to be able to retrieve information from the voice and data recorders and add it topreliminary air force radar tracks to allow them to piece together the stricken jet's final out-of-control minutes.

The preliminary radar data shows the jet made a long dive at near-supersonic speeds, reared up into a sharp climb and then plunged in pieces into the sea.Earlier on Saturday, calm seas had allowed crews searching for the recorders to extend their hunt into the evening as an unexpectedly long weather window provided favourable search conditions. The navy's deep drone undersea robot, lowered on a tether from the search ship USS Grapple, again homed in on the signals from the recorders but was unable to find and retrieve them from the ocean floor about 76 metres under water.

On shore, more than 300 family members of the victims got their first look at the wreckage that has been recovered so far. They were bused on Saturday afternoon to the Quonset point naval air station to see the items. Reporters were not allowed at the viewing. Family members said they were overwhelmed by the sight ofthousands of small pieces of wreckage from the crashed airliner and that the experience helped them realise the violence of its crash.``Whatever I say can never express the sadness that we felt,'' said Wahid Elzoghby, a friend of brothers Amr and Abdelmonein who lost their parents in the disaster.

``They had hoped that they could find the whole body, but from what they saw and what I saw, I don't think any complete bodies will come out of this,'' Elzoghby said.

Samir el Shanawany, Egyptair's general manager for north America, earlier on Saturday defended the airline's safety record and pilot training in a brief appearance in the press centre.

``All I can say is what great confidence we have in our crew, their training. It's very strict and it follows FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) regulations,'' El Shanawany said.

Red Cross officials and clergy will hold an ecumenical service today that will have elements from Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths.