More bodies recovered from Air France crash zone
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
FERNANDO DE NORONHA, Brazil, June 8 (AFP): Seventeen bodies recovered from a remote part of the Atlantic where an Air France jet came down a week ago were being transported by ship Monday to this Brazilian archipelago, officials said.
Those remains, and dozens of structural components from the plane also plucked from the waves, were expected to arrive in Fernando de Noronha Tuesday.
From the archipelago, the bodies would be flown to the mainland coastal city of Recife for identification using dental records and DNA from relatives, air force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz told reporters late Sunday in Recife.
Brazilian and French continued to scour the crash zone 1,100 kilometres off Brazil's northeast coast for more bodies and pieces of wreckage.
A French military nuclear submarine was expected to arrive in the area Wednesday to hunt for the elusive black boxes from Air France flight AF 447, which came down June 1 with 228 people on board as it was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Homing beacons on the data devices, believed to lie on the sea floor at a depth of up to 6,000 metres, will cease to operate in three weeks.
The US Navy said Sunday it would send two towable pinger locators and a crew of around 20 to the scene later this week, in the hope of finding the data recorders.
Those remains, and dozens of structural components from the plane also plucked from the waves, were expected to arrive in Fernando de Noronha Tuesday.
From the archipelago, the bodies would be flown to the mainland coastal city of Recife for identification using dental records and DNA from relatives, air force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz told reporters late Sunday in Recife.
Brazilian and French continued to scour the crash zone 1,100 kilometres off Brazil's northeast coast for more bodies and pieces of wreckage.
A French military nuclear submarine was expected to arrive in the area Wednesday to hunt for the elusive black boxes from Air France flight AF 447, which came down June 1 with 228 people on board as it was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Homing beacons on the data devices, believed to lie on the sea floor at a depth of up to 6,000 metres, will cease to operate in three weeks.
The US Navy said Sunday it would send two towable pinger locators and a crew of around 20 to the scene later this week, in the hope of finding the data recorders.