6 May 2011

Body recovered from Air France jet

3:55 pm on 6 May 2011

A body has been retrieved from the wreckage of an Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009 with the loss of all 228 people on board.

It was brought to the surface by mini-submarines from a depth of almost 4km.

The body brought up to a ship on Thursday consisted of skeletal remains, still strapped to a seat.

Samples are being sent to labs in France for DNA identification.

The remains of 41 passengers were found floating in the ocean after the crash, but many more are missing. It's thought that others could be in the wreckage of the plane.

An undersea team is using deep-sea robots in the salvage operation.

Black box flight data recorders recovered earlier this week. They might provide clues as to why flight AF447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris went down four hours after take-off on 1 June, 2009.

The wreckage was discovered last month after a long search of 10,000 sq km of sea floor.