Bodies from plane crash arrive in Brazil

10 Jun 2009, 6:14 am   -   Source: AAP
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Members of the Brazilian Air Force carry the remains of a body recovered from the ocean, believed to be from the Air France crash (AP)

Members of the Brazilian Air Force carry the remains of a body recovered from the ocean, believed to be from the Air France crash (AP)

The first 16 bodies recovered from an Air France jet crash in the Atlantic arrived at this remote Brazilian island on Tuesday ahead of identification.

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The first 16 bodies recovered from an Air France jet crash in the Atlantic arrived at this remote Brazilian island on Tuesday ahead of identification, officials said.

The remains were recovered on the weekend from the spot the Airbus A330 came down as it was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1. All 228 people on board were killed.

A total of at least 28 bodies had been picked up as of early Tuesday, according to Brazilian officials.

'Sea of debris'

They were found floating in what one Brazilian navy crewman said was "a sea of debris" 1,100 kilometres off Brazil's northeast coast.

From Fernando de Noronha, the remains were to be flown by plane to the mainland coastal city of Recife, where they were to be identified using DNA samples from relatives and dental records.

Interpol is helping with the task, and France is heading the investigation into the crash. Passengers from 32 countries were on the flight.

Efforts continued in the Atlantic to retrieve part of the shattered aircraft that might yield clues as to the cause of the crash.

A Brazilian navy ship on Monday recovered the plane's tail fin, seen as the most important piece yet recovered, since the plane's black boxes were mounted in the aircraft's tail section.

Officials said the fin's location could narrow the underwater search for those devices by a French submarine expected to arrive in the zone on Wednesday.

Suspicion over airspeed sensors

Suspicion of what caused the crash has come to focus, at least in part, on the Airbus's airspeed sensors, known as "pitot probes".

Air France has said it is stepping up replacement of the sensors on its A330s, amid speculation that they may have iced up during a storm at high altitude and supplied false airspeed data to the cockpit.

This, in turn, could have caused the pilots to fly too slow and stall, or too fast and rip the airframe apart, aviation experts say.

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