Bayonne: The remains of 104
people killed in a 2009 plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean were
brought to France on Thursday for identification.
The remains were located by underwater robots at ocean
depths of 3,900 metres in a dramatic discovery in April,
nearly two years after the plane dived into the ocean. All 228
people aboard the plane were killed when it crashed en route
from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
Bodies and wreckage from Air France Flight 447 arrived
by ship at the Atlantic port of Bayonne today under heavy
police and military protection.
Three containers containing wreckage of the plane are
being sent to the French city of Toulouse for analysis. The
bodies are being sent to Paris for identification via DNA
testing.
The examination of the bodies will begin tomorrow,
including study of the victims teeth and DNA, and then the
bodies will be returned to the families for eventual burial,
the Paris police administration said in a statement.
Some of the families have said they didn`t want their
loved ones` bodies to be raised from the sea, but many are
hoping to be able to bury them at last.
The exact cause of the crash remains unclear.
The plane`s black box flight recorders were also
recovered with the bodies. Based on initial information from
the recorders, investigators say the pilots, confronted with
faulty instrument readings and alarms going off in the
cockpit, struggled to tame the aircraft as it went into an
aerodynamic stall, rolled, and finally plunged 38,000 feet in
just three and a half minutes.
A full investigators` report on the crash is expected
in July.
PTI
