Post date: May 05, 2011 8:30:39 PM
Controversy sparked among Brazilian relatives of Air France crash victims over whether bodies should be lifted from the ocean or not, after the first remains of one of the 228 people aboard the doomed flight were hauled up from the Atlantic.
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (MAY 5, 2011) REUTERS - As search teams recovered a body from the ocean of an Air France crash victim, Brazilian relatives are divided over whether the remains of their loved ones should be removed from the seabed or left in peace.
The body of one of the 228 people aboard the Rio-Paris doomed flight that plunged into the ocean off Brazil in 2009 was painstakingly brought to the surface on Thursday (May 5) from a depth of 3,900 m (12,800 feet).The remains -- preserved by high pressure and low temperatures as it lay in the submerged wreckage for nearly two years -- were still belted to an airline seat as French investigators brought it aboard their search vessel off Brazil's northeast coast from a robot submarine, a spokesman for the operation said.
French and Brazilian relatives diverge over whether they want the last bodies recovered or left in peace. Only some 50 bodies were fished out by the Brazilian Navy in the days after the crash.
Lawyer Joao Tancredo, who represents 14 Brazilian families, said some of their clients would prefer to leave their relatives' untouched in the sea.
Tancredo said the latest efforts from search crews were controversial since there was no way of recognizing bodies until they were brought to surface and taken to labs.
"There is no way of identifying bodies amid that wreckage in such depths, we are aware of that. So they can end up meeting the demands of one family by recovering one body, but also displease other family by lifting a body that they did not want to be removed," he said.
It was the first attempt by the French search party, which recently recovered the two "black box" voice and data recorders from the wreckage, to bring up human remains from the seabed.
The French Interior Ministry said in a statement that investigators on board the search vessel had taken DNA samples from the body, which would be sent back to France along with the two black boxes and used to try and identify the victim.
Tancredo said the Brazilian families would rather the bodies to stay in Brazil to speed up legal processes.
"They are not very pleased with this fact (taking the bodies to France), because it would slow the recognition process -- it's another burden. And if they don't manage to identify bodies, this would lead to an even greater pain; it would extend the suffering, the mourning period, this would still last for a while," he said.
Nearly two years after the tragedy, the French team found more bodies inside the Airbus 330-203 wreckage when they located it in early April. The bodies were captured on photographs by unmanned submarines.
Investigators and relatives of the victims hope the flight recorders will explain what caused the airliner to plunge into the sea when it hit storms following its take-off from Rio de Janeiro in June 2009, killing all 228 passengers and crew.
Theories about the cause of the Air France flight 447 disaster have focused on the possible icing up of the aircraft's speed sensors, which seemed to give inconsistent readings before communication was lost.