Air crash victim’s body recovered from seabed by remote submarine

The Air France flight from Rio de Janiero in Brazil to Paris crashed on June 1, 2009

The victim was still strapped into the seat, making the recovery difficult, according to French police, who have experts on the recovery boat.

Yesterday, it was still unclear whether all the bodies found in the latest search could be recovered.

The recovery of the victim came two days after the cockpit voice recorder was pulled from the ocean. The data memory unit was found days earlier.

If in good shape, the two “black boxes” could solve the mystery of why Air France flight 447 crashed 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.

Investigators hope to test sample for DNA but they are unsure whether it will be enough for the body to be identified.

A first search of the area, shortly after the June 2009 crash, found 50 bodies.

If the data recorded on the two black boxes are readable, “in three weeks we could know part of the truth” of what caused the crash, France’s transport minister, Thierry Mariani, said this week.

Experts have said without the two recorders there would be almost no chance of determining what caused the crash, the worst disaster in Air France’s history.

The flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic north-east of Brazil after running into an intense high-altitude thunderstorm.