Rio-Paris crash body lifted from seabed
Source: Agencies |
May 6, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A REMOTE-CONTROLLED submarine yesterday removed a body from the deep-sea wreckage of the Air France flight that plunged into the Atlantic Ocean two years ago and raised the remains 3,900 meters to the water's surface, the French recovery team said.
The victim was still strapped into the seat, making the recovery difficult, according to a statement from French police, which has experts on the recovery boat. It's unclear if all bodies found in a recent search can be recovered.
The recovery of the victim comes two days after the cockpit voice recorder was pulled from the ocean. The data memory unit had been found days earlier. If in good shape, the two "black boxes" could clear the mystery of why Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris slammed into a remote area of the mid-Atlantic, several hours from the Brazilian coast.
A tissue sample from the newly raised body will be sent back to France along with the black boxes. They are expected to arrive in France by plane early next week, after first being transported by boat to French Guiana.
Investigators hope to use DNA testing on the tissue sample, but it is uncertain those tests will allow them to identify the body. Fifty bodies were found shortly after the June 1, 2009, crash, during the first search effort.
Determining the cause of the crash took on new importance in March, when a French judge filed preliminary manslaughter charges against Air France and plane maker Airbus.
Air France and Airbus are financing the estimated US$12.5 million cost of the current search effort, but the French government is paying for the recovery of anything that is found. About US$28 million was spent on three previous, fruitless searches.
The victim was still strapped into the seat, making the recovery difficult, according to a statement from French police, which has experts on the recovery boat. It's unclear if all bodies found in a recent search can be recovered.
The recovery of the victim comes two days after the cockpit voice recorder was pulled from the ocean. The data memory unit had been found days earlier. If in good shape, the two "black boxes" could clear the mystery of why Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris slammed into a remote area of the mid-Atlantic, several hours from the Brazilian coast.
A tissue sample from the newly raised body will be sent back to France along with the black boxes. They are expected to arrive in France by plane early next week, after first being transported by boat to French Guiana.
Investigators hope to use DNA testing on the tissue sample, but it is uncertain those tests will allow them to identify the body. Fifty bodies were found shortly after the June 1, 2009, crash, during the first search effort.
Determining the cause of the crash took on new importance in March, when a French judge filed preliminary manslaughter charges against Air France and plane maker Airbus.
Air France and Airbus are financing the estimated US$12.5 million cost of the current search effort, but the French government is paying for the recovery of anything that is found. About US$28 million was spent on three previous, fruitless searches.
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