A remote-controlled submarine has recovered the body of one of the Air France crash victims from the Atlantic Ocean seabed 12,000 feet down.
The victim was still strapped into the seat, making the recovery difficult, according to French police, who have experts on the recovery boat.
It is unclear if all bodies found in a recent search can be recovered.
Air France flight 447 crashed into the ocean en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, killing all 228 passengers and crew – including three Irish women.
The recovery of the victim comes two days after the cockpit voice recorder was pulled from the ocean. The data memory unit had been found days earlier.
If in good shape, the two “black boxes” could reveal the mystery of why Air France flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris slammed 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 use DNA testing on the tissue sample, but it is uncertain those tests will allow them to identify the body.
Some 50 bodies were found shortly after the June 1st, 2009 crash, during the first search effort.
If the data recorded on the two black boxes is readable, “in three weeks we could know part of the truth” of what caused the crash, 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 slammed into the Atlantic north-east of Brazil after running into an intense high-altitude thunderstorm.
Automatic messages sent by the Airbus 330’s computers showed the aircraft was receiving false airspeed readings from sensors known as pitot tubes.
Determining the cause of the crash took on new importance in March, when a French judge filed preliminary manslaughter charges against Air France and planemaker Airbus.
Among the victims of the disaster were Dr Jane Deasy (27), Rathgar, Dublin, Dr Aisling Butler (26), Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and Dr Eithne Walls (28), Ballygowan, Co Down. The three were returning from a holiday in Brazil.
PA