BRAZIL/FILE: Relatives of Air France crash victims urge searchers to retrieve all bodies from the ocean floor

Record ID: 860178

  • Title: BRAZIL/FILE: Relatives of Air France crash victims urge searchers to retrieve all bodies from the ocean floor
  • Date: 19th May 2011
  • Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (MAY 18, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) HEAD OF THE ASSOCIATION OF RELATIVES OF VICTIMS OF THE AIR FRANCE CRASH, NELSON MARINHO, SAYING: "I think it's absurd that they are blaming the pilot who cannot defend himself. It's very easy to blame a person who is no longer in this world and I'm sure the pilot did nothing wrong."
  • Embargoed: 3rd June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: At Sea, Brazil
  • City:
  • Country: Brazil At Sea
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA3IVBE0D4QR165ZHI9EZ4YVN23
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: The relatives of the victims of an Air France plane that crashed into the Atlantic in 2009 urged searchers to retrieve all bodies from the ocean floor, even the most deteriorated ones.
    The French carrier sent the Brazilian families a letter on Wednesday (May 18) saying only the remains in an earlier state of decomposition would be removed, about one week after two more bodies were located.
    Nelson Marinho, a retired machinery mechanic who transformed his home into a relatives' association, has spent the past two years hoping to bury his son Marcelo, whose body remains missing. Only 51 of the 228 bodies have been recovered so far.
    French investigators said the recently recovered bodies were identifiable through DNA tests as they had been conserved by high pressure and low temperature at a depth of 3,900 meters (12,800 feet).
    Marinho said all families wanted to bury their loved ones regardless of their state of decomposition.
    "We did not send a letter to the court asking for the bodies to be removed selectively. All bodies must be recovered because the families want the remains of their loved ones that are under water in order to give them a proper and decent burial," he said.
    France's BEA air crash investigation agency said this week it had managed to transfer all the information stored in the flight recorder devices hauled from the seabed last month, almost two years after the Airbus A330 vanished in an equatorial storm.
    Preliminary reports claim there was no apparent mechanical failures with the jet, indicating the pilots might have been responsible for the accident.
    Marinho said it was not fair to blame a dead person alone for such a disaster.
    "I think it's absurd that they are blaming the pilot who cannot defend himself. It's very easy to blame a person who is no longer in this world and I'm sure the pilot did nothing wrong," he said.
    The BEA was expected to make two recordings of the black box data -- one for its own investigation and one for French judges probing whether anyone should be held criminally responsible.
    Air France and Airbus, part of the European aerospace group EADS, have both been placed under formal investigation, a step short of charges but which can ultimately lead to trial.
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