Bodies fished from ocean waters off the coast of Brazil will undergo initial identification before being taken to the mainland coastal city of Recife. --PHOTO: AP
FERNANDO DE NORONHA (Brazil) - A MILITARY helicopter bearing the bodies of eight people killed a week ago when an Air France jet plunged into the Atlantic, arrived on Tuesday in Fernando de Noronha off the Brazilian mainland.
Officials said bodies fished from ocean waters off the coast of Brazil will undergo initial identification before being taken to the mainland coastal city of Recife, where investigators hope to identify the remains by checking dental records and DNA samples provided by relatives.
In Recife, French investigators also will pore over components from the plane.
The remains had been placed aboard the frigate The Constitution, anchored about 50 kilometres from Fernando de Noronha, before being flown to the archipelago.
A team of workers wearing white hospital masks, removed the body bags containing the remains retrieved from the chopper.
Air France flight AF 447 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board on June 1 when it came down on in mysterious circumstances. No distress call was received from the pilots.
The Airbus A330 plane came down around 1,000 kilometres off Brazil's northeast coast early Monday, when it was four hours into its 11-hour overnight voyage between Rio de Janeiro and Paris.
Meanwhile, efforts continued in the Atlantic to retrieve part of the shattered aircraft that might yield clues as to the cause of the crash.
A Brazilian navy ship on Monday recovered the plane?s tail fin, seen as the most important piece yet recovered, since the plane?s black boxes were mounted in the aircraft's tail section.
Officials said the fin's location could narrow the underwater search for those devices by a French submarine expected to arrive in the zone on Wednesday. -- AFP
