Remains of plane crash victim recovered

Remains of plane crash victim recovered

A remote-controlled submersible removed skeletal remainsof a passenger from the wreckage of the Air France flight that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean two years ago.

It was then raised nearly 3,660m to the surface on Thursday, the French recovery team said.

The remains werestill strapped into the seat, making its recovery difficult, according to a statement from the French police.

In this file photo dated June 8, 2009, Brazil's Navy sailors recovering debris from the Air France flight in the Atlantic Ocean

The recovery of the victim came two days after the cockpit voice recorder and data-memory unit were retrieved from the ocean.

If in good shape, the two black boxes could clear up the mystery of why the AF 447 flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris slammed into a remote area of the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil.

Along with the black boxes, a tissue sample from the newly-raised remains will be sent back to France for DNA testing.

Fifty bodies were found shortly after the June 1, 2009, crash, during the first search.

The rest of the 228 dead and much of the wreckage of the Airbus 330 jet have been at the bottom of the Atlantic, in a sandy plain amid huge underwater mountains.

"If the data on the two black boxes are readable, we could know part of the truth of what caused the crash in three weeks," French Transport Minister Thierry Mariani said.
Source: AP

Links: Second black box found
Black box retrieved from 3,900m under water