Sixteen bodies recovered from Air France crash

RECIFE (AFP) - Sixteen bodies were recovered over the weekend from the Atlantic site where an Air France jet came down on June 1, Brazilian military officials said Monday.
The statement came after a French navy vessel handed over seven bodies to the crew of a Brazilian frigate, instead of eight as had been expected, Brazilian navy spokesman Captain Guicemar Tabosa told reporters.
That Brazilian frigate, which already had nine recovered bodies on board, was to arrive in the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha early Tuesday, he said.
From there, the bodies were to be flown to the mainland.
Identification was to take place in the Brazilian mainland city of Recife using dental records and DNA samples taken from relatives.
Air France flight AF 447 came down as it was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board. The cause of the accident is not known.
A Brazilian search team on Monday recovered the tail fin from an Air France jet that plunged into the Atlantic a week ago, the first important piece of debris from the accident, officials said.
The Brazilian navy released photos showing four divers securing the half-submerged fin also known as the vertical stabilizer while another four helped from an inflatable rubber dinghy.
A spokesman for the Brazilian air force, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Munhoz, told reporters in the northeastern city of Recife that the piece would be taken to the Atlantic archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.
From there, it would be flown to Recife for closer inspection.
The find could be especially significant because it could point to the location underwater of the black boxes, which are mounted in the tail section of commercial aircraft.
It is hoped the boxes the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder could yield vital clues as to the reason of the crash.
Air France flight AF 447 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 people on board when it came down on June 1 in mysterious circumstances. No distress call was received from the pilots.