The funerals of John F. Kennedy Jnr, his wife Carolyn and her sister Lauren Bessette are expected as soon as the required autopsies have taken place. It has been reported that Mr Kennedy may be buried at sea.
The three bodies were recovered from the wreckage of his light aircraft yesterday in 115 feet of water off Martha's Vineyard Island. Senator Teddy Kennedy accompanied the bodies to the local medical examiner's office near Wood's Hole, where they were brought ashore.
A memorial service for Mr Kennedy and his wife has been arranged for tomorrow at the small St Thomas More Church on the Upper East Side, Manhattan, where his mother, Mrs Jacqueline Kennedy, used to worship. It holds only 350 people.
An Irish-American organisation has arranged another memorial Mass in the Old St Patrick's Cathedral in lower Manhattan for those who cannot be accommodated at the family service.
A separate ecumenical service will be held on Saturday for Ms Lauren Bessette at her home town of Greenwich, Connecticut, in the Episcopalian Christ Church cathedral.
Reports that Mr Kennedy might be buried at sea are not being confirmed or denied by the Kennedy family. "No decisions have been made," a family source told Associated Press.
Confirmation that the bodies had been located in the wreckage of the single-engined plane came after a day of confusion about whether Mr Kennedy's body, which had been found first, had been taken from the seabed to the naval vessel Grasp.
Senator Teddy Kennedy and his two sons, Edward and Patrick, were brought from the family compound at Hyannis Port to the Grasp.
In an earlier statement, the NTSB said that a large portion of the fuselage had been located at 11.30 p.m. on Tuesday (4.30 a.m. Wednesday, Irish time), but made no mention of bodies.
President Clinton denied at a press conference yesterday that the White House had taken over a role in the search or in giving information. He said that he had encouraged the head of the Coast Guard, Rear Admiral Richard Larrabee, to continue the search at a point when operations might normally have ceased.