Brazilian air force officials said 41 bodies have been recovered from the crashed Air France flight 447.
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Brazil's Air Force Brig. Gen. Ramon Cardoso shows a graphic of the rescue area during a press conference in Recife, northeastern Brazil, Tuesday, June 9, 2009. |
Search crews have been scouring the Atlantic Ocean, since the plane went down last week.
A Brazilian navy ship recovered 13 more bodies on Tuesday, all thought to be victims from the downed Air France plane.
In a news conference at Recife, a top Brazilian air force official said 25 bodies were on their way to Noronha.
Ramon Cardoso, Brazilian Air Force Brigadier, said, "The navy and air force command have informed me that a total of 41 bodies have so far been recovered. 25 of them are aboard the Bosisio ship. The first 16 bodies recovered are already in Fernando de Noronha, and will be transported in a C-130 Hercules plane to Recife on Wednesday afternoon for further analysis."
For the past week, members of Rio de Janeiro's Federal Police department have been gathering DNA fragments from relatives of the victims, including saliva and skin samples.
A spokesman for the relatives said family members will not have to identify their loved ones unless they choose to, since DNA alone should indicate which family each body belongs to.
Meanwhile, with the discovery of debris and bodies about 70 kilometers from where the jet was last heard from, searchers are narrowing their hunt for the cockpit voice and flight data recorders.
The US Navy is providing devices capable of picking up the black box to a depth of 61-hundred meters, and will be slowly towed in a grid pattern across the search area.
A French nuclear submarine with advanced sonar equipment is due to arrive on Thursday and will join the search for the aircraft's black box recorders.
France, Brazil and the US say there are no signs that terrorism was involved in the crash.
(CCTV June 11, 2009)
